A narrow but concrete carpeted road leads to the hill in Suriyakanda where in 1994 a gruesome mass grave was unearthed shocking the entire nation. The area even after more than two decades, remains remote and isolated except for a house or two among the tea plantations dotting the path. The very steep and difficult climb up the road brings one to the Sri Lanka Telecom, ITN and Rupavahini towers on the hill, while no indication remains of the scenes of horror encountered by the residents of Embilipitiya that fateful day in 1994,when skeletal remains believed to be that of the students missing from the Embilipitiya Madhya Maha Vidyalaya were discovered, on a tip-off received. But nevertheless, the surrounding area is cold and eerie, giving a sense of the tragic events that once unfolded there. Though its forensic investigations stalled many years ago, its residents to this day remain hesitant to talk about the past.
It began in 1994 when a witness, whose identity remains secret, decided to speak up and reveal that a mass grave containing skeletal remains of a number of individuals are located on this hill. It was just several years after the 1987-89 Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) Insurrection which had brought the Sri Lankan government to near collapse.
As terror reigned the country, with JVP’s death squads killing those believed to be linked to the government, while in return, State-backed groups sought to ‘search, interrogate and destroy’ suspected JVP members. 60,000 youth are believed to have been killed during the time period. As a result students of several schools in the Embilipitiya area suspected of taking part in JVP activities had gone missing between the months of August - December in 1989. The majority of them at the time were students of the Embilipitiya Madhya Maha Vidyalaya. The youth who were hauled away just disappeared without a trace.
Several years on with a government project to install a Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) tower on the very same hill threatening to conceal the site forever, the witness had finally plucked up the courage to reveal the information he had to Victor Ivan, Editor of the Sinhala weekly, Ravaya, and politician S.B Dissanayake. Recalling the incident, parliamentarian S.B Dissanayake says it was Victor Ivan that initially informed him regarding the mass grave. Failing to obtain the support of any government official, Ravaya, in the end, sought to uncover the mass grave with the support of the country’s political opposition at the time.
The chosen date was January 3, 1994. ‘Having conveyed the information to Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga and Anurauddha Ratawatte we decided we would visit the site secretly to uncover more information’, Dissanayake recalls. Joining them at the time were current day political heavyweights such as Minister Mangala Samaraweera and Joint Opposition MP Pavithra Wanniarachchi, media personnel and many others.
According to Dissanayake, on reaching the spot the group began searching for the skeletal remains, but to no avail. ‘We tried a different area thereafter and had almost given up, when a stench began wafting through the air,’ he recalls.On digging further, finally bones and clothing began to appear.
‘We took around 10 samples and reported the incident to the Embilipitiya Magistrate’s Court thereafter,” Dissanayake said.
While the magistrate ordered the official excavations to begin on January 8 this news spread like wildfire, with villagers and grieving parents of the missing children converging on Suriyakanda. Among the crowd were also politicians, lawyers and media personnel. Notably, this was the first time in the country’s history that a mass grave was to be disinterred.
Professor Niriellage Chandrasiri of the Ruhuna Judicial Medical Unit, Chief Judicial Medical Officer L B L De Alwis, and Colombo South Teaching Hospital Chief Judicial Medical Officer S M Colambage, were tasked with the excavation process.
While the trio had previous experience through taking part in similar excavations abroad, however, the situation soon began to spiral out of control with the public and even politicians taking part in the excavation, digging with their bare hands while not following the disinterment procedures required in this situation. Skeletal remains were stacked up around the grave while the clothes found on the bodies were separated as well. At the time Sri Lanka did not have the necessary DNA technology to identify the remains and therefore the advice of the medical officers heading the excavation was to proceed with great care while preserving the integrity of the remains. But what took place was in stark contrast to what was required. Visitors to the grave took part in the excavations, others were seen hugging the excavated skeletal remains and crying. Some were found to have taken remains home without the knowledge of the officials.