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✍️ EDITORIAL - Six hundred bodies, no cause of death
For decades, Tamils have searched for news of their forcibly disappeared. The excavation at Chemmani, gruelling and harrowing as it has been, carried the hope that some of their questions might finally be answered and justice delivered.
After more than sixteen months of digging, the two state-appointed archaeologists leading the work have submitted a preliminary report on the mass grave.
It documents how of the nearly 600 people buried there, some four in ten were children and more than one in five were infants. On how these people died, when they were buried, and by whom, the report says nothing.
It does not rule out unlawful killing. It does, however, put forward, without basis, the hypothesis that an "epidemic or a natural disaster" may account for the grave.
tamilguardian.com/content/six-hu…
Illustration by Keera Ratnam.
For decades, Tamils have searched for news of their forcibly disappeared. The excavation at Chemmani, gruelling and harrowing as it has been, carried the hope that some of their questions might finally be answered and justice delivered.
After more than sixteen months of digging, the two state-appointed archaeologists leading the work have submitted a preliminary report on the mass grave.
It documents how of the nearly 600 people buried there, some four in ten were children and more than one in five were infants. On how these people died, when they were buried, and by whom, the report says nothing.
It does not rule out unlawful killing. It does, however, put forward, without basis, the hypothesis that an "epidemic or a natural disaster" may account for the grave.
tamilguardian.com/content/six-hu…
Illustration by Keera Ratnam.
