The remains were discovered in a mass grave in Thiruketheeswaram in 2013.

Lawyer attached to Mannar Magistrate Court - V.S Niranjan stated that permission was given to send the skeletons to either Yugoslavia, Argentina or Guatemala to conduct the DNA tests.

However, Judicial Medical Officer Dananjaya Waidyaratne who conducted the initial examinations of these skeletons stated that it is not necessary to send the skeletons to a foreign country for DNA tests.

Noting that age, time, gender and the cause of death can be determined by examining the each skeleton at a local laboratory, the JMO added that a large of such examinations are already underway.

He stated that he was transferred to the Matale District General Hospital while conducting preliminary investigations into the 88 skeletons while working at the Anuradhapura Teaching Hospital.

However, he added the probe faced a standstill after nobody instructed him to conduct further investigations.

Cemetery

Meanwhile, the CID officers who conducted investigations into the Thiruketheeswaram mass grave had informed courts that the skeletons may belong to the people who faced a natural death, since there had been a cemetery at the particular location in the past.

Raising objections against the CID report, several volunteer organizations had submitted a petition at the court claiming that the CID report is false.

The petition read that since number of individuals went missing from the areas surrounding the mass grave during the war, these skeletons could belong to such disappeared persons.

The Mannar Magistrate Court has ordered to conduct DNA tests in order to arrive at a clear conclusion regarding these contrasting opinions.

(BBC Sandeshaya)