Sri Lanka to probe mass grave with more than 150 dead

08 April, 2013 - Sri Lanka is setting up a presidential commission to investigate a mass grave with the remains of more than 150 people. Two reports submitted to a court last week said that the human remains, in the town of Matale 142 km north of the capital, dated back to the period 1986-1989 when Sri Lanka faced the Marxist insurrection of Janatha Vimukthi Peremuna (JVP), or People's Liberation Front. The decision to set up commission comes five months after the mass grave was found at a building site near a hospital. Ajith Jayasena, the judicial medical officer at the hospital, said the excavation was still going on and there may be more remains in the grave. JVP launched the second phase of its insurrection in the late 1980s after the first one in 1971. The security forces responded ruthlessly and many rebels were killed or disappeared. The JVP later transformed itself from a rebel group into a political party. (Source: Reuters)