Mass grave unearthed in Sri Lanka’s former conflict zone

Sri Lanka authorities have found a mass grave of 151 people in Sri Lanka’s former war zone where the government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels were engaged in a 30-year civil war.

At least 14 skeletons found in the northeastern district of Mannar belonged to children. Authorities have been digging up an old cooperative store site in Mannar after some construction workers came across skeletons in March while working on a new project.

Sri Lanka set up an office for missing persons after it came under international pressure to account for civilians who went missing since the war began in 1980.  Several probes instituted since the 1990s have found nearly 25,000 people missing as a result of the armed conflicts.

Mannar was occupied by the LTTE during Sri Lanka’s civil war between 1983 and 2009. International rights groups have said that at least 40,000 Tamil civilians were killed by government forces under the command of former president Mahinda Rajapakse in the final months of the war.

Sri Lanka has been facing accusations of rights abuses since the war ended in 2009.