Petitions filed in Sri Lanka's mass grave case

The relatives of suspected victims buried in the mass grave at Matale in Sri Lanka's central province have filed court petitions seeking a probe to find out the truth about the incident.
The Marxist JVP legislator Anura Kumara Dissanayake said as many as 13 petitions have been filed in the Matale magistrate court.
"This is a mass grave where large numbers (of people) have been buried so there has to be an investigation," Dissanayake said.
The JVP claims the victims were their cadres who had been killed in a brutal government crackdown against them during 1987-90.
The magistrate ordered that statements be recorded from relatives and a further hearing of the case would be made on May 10.

Some 154 skeletal remains were found at the construction site of a new building for the Matale hospital in late November last year.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa in April appointed a three-member probe panel on the mass grave.