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{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2022}}
The '''Sooriyakanda mass grave''' is the mass burial ground of murdered school children from Embilipitiya Maha Vidyalaya (Embilipitiya High School) in [[Sri Lanka]]. These school children were killed and buried as part of the [[counterinsurgency]] during the [[1987–89 JVP Insurrection (Sri Lanka)|second JVP uprising]] in Sri Lanka. It was alleged that over 300 bodies were buried in the location. The mass grave was located in 1994. The Sri Lankan government last reported in 1996 to have conducted a [[forensic analysis]] of the burial ground uncovering an unspecified number of bodies. Local media, [[NGO]]s and the [[US state department]] have claimed that the investigations are not satisfactory.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dailymirror.lk/2005/08/06/life/3.asp |title=The Magic of Weerawila Lake |accessdate=2009-01-02 |work=Gamini Akmeemana |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080216194922/http://www.dailymirror.lk/2005/08/06/life/3.asp |archivedate=16 February 2008 }}</ref><ref name=rg/><ref name=priu/>

==Background==
{{Main|1987-89 JVP Insurrection (Sri Lanka)|Sri Lankan civil war}}
During the 1987 to 1989 period, as the [[Sri Lankan Civil War|war in the north]] became more intense, there was a marked shift in the ideology and goals of the [[Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna]] (JVP) party in Sri Lanka. It morphed from a [[Marxist]] organization into a [[Sinhalese people|Sinhalese]] [[nationalist]] organization opposing any compromise with the [[Tamil militants|Tamil insurgency]]. Due to its alleged role in [[Black July|anti-Tamil riots of July 1983]], although the government supplied no evidence to support this allegation, it was banned and its leadership went underground.<ref name=rg>{{cite book|last=Gunaratna|first=Rohan|title=Sri Lanka, a lost revolution?: The inside story of the JVP|publisher=Institute of Fundamental Studies|year=1990|isbn=978-955-26-0004-3}}</ref>

The group's activities intensified against the then government in the second half of 1987 in the wake of the [[Indo-Sri Lankan Accord]] to resolve the ethnic conflict. During 1987 a new group, the [[Deshapremi Janatha Viyaparaya]] (DJV), emerged. It was an offshoot of the JVP. The DJV claimed responsibility for the August 1987 assassination attempts on the president [[Premadasa]] and [[prime minister]]. In addition, the group launched a campaign of intimidation against the ruling [[United National Party]] (UNP) party, killing more than seventy [[members of Parliament]] between July and November 1987.<ref name=rg/>

The JVP seriously misjudged its own strength when, through the DJV, it called for the killing of members of the families of [[Sri Lankan Army|army personnel]]. This destroyed the small but significant amount of support that it enjoyed among the lower ranks of the armed forces, and made it possible for the government to justify its [[State terrorism in Sri Lanka|campaign of terror]]. As a means of pacifying the support base of JVP, a wide range of acts of cruelty, including the [[torture]] and [[mass murder]] of school children, who were allegedly JVP supporters, was carried out by the state.<ref>
[http://www.ndpsl.org/political_analysis/JVP-LessonsfortheLeft,2003.DOC JVP: Lessons for the Genuine Left] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071013154029/http://www.ndpsl.org/political_analysis/JVP-LessonsfortheLeft,2003.DOC |date=2007-10-13 }}</ref><ref>Gananath Obeyesekere, "Narratives of the self: Chevalier Peter Dillon's Fijian cannibal adventures", in Barbara Creed, Jeanette Hoorn, ''Body Trade: captivity, cannibalism and colonialism in the Pacific'', Routledge, 2001, p. 100. {{ISBN|0-415-93884-8}}. "The 'time of dread' was roughly 1985-89, when ethnic Sinhalese youth took over vast areas of the country and practiced enormous atrocities; they were only eliminated by equally dreadful state terrorism."</ref>

==Investigation==
In 1994, after a request by the [[United Nations]] (UN) regarding the mass graves, the Government reported that an excavation of the graves had been carried out on 14 September 1994 under the supervision of the [[High Court of Sri Lanka|High Court]] and it resulted in the discovery of an unspecified number of [[skeletal]] remains.{{fact|date=December 2022}}

The report also indicated that a team of [[forensic]], investigative and legal experts helped the court, in order to ensure a proper and scientific excavation and to assist in the further discovery and identification of bodies and the investigation of the circumstances in which they were buried at Sooriyakanda.<ref>[http://www.unhchr.ch/Huridocda/Huridoca.nsf/0/8609717f849d1a5b802566b10041bb43?OpenDocument UNHCHR Report on mass graves in Sri Lanka]</ref> The Government also reported that it has started to investigate newly discovered graves, including one at [[Ankumbura mass grave|Ankumbura]] which may contain the bodies of 36 people killed by the police in 1989.<ref>[http://dosfan.lib.uic.edu/ERC/democracy/1994_hrp_report/94hrp_report_sasia/SriLanka.html TITLE: SRI LANKA HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICES, 1994]</ref>

==Follow up==
Local newspapers, including ''The Island'' and the ''[[Sunday Times (Sri Lanka)|Sunday Times]]'', have reported that, although the [[People's Alliance (Sri Lanka)|People's Alliance]] party had come to power in 1993, promising to investigate alleged atrocities conducted during the previous 18 years of [[United National Party]] (UNP) rule, including the Sooriyakanada mass graves, nothing had come of the efforts. Another report indicated that officers initially indicted of the crime were honorably discharged as soon as [[Sri Lankan civil war|hostilities]] with the rebel [[Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam]] (LTTE) began.<ref name=priu>[http://www.priu.gov.lk/news_update/EditorialReviews/erev200008/20000817editorialreview.html Editorial review- Thursday 17 August 2000]</ref>

Notable international jurist [[Neelan Thiruchelvam]], in a speech at the ICES-Colombo, indicated that the appropriate investigations into [[wikt:massacre|massacres]] and [[forced disappearances|disappearances]] of civilians, including many children in the [[Sathurukondan massacre|Sathurukondan]], [[Eastern University massacre|Eastern University]], [[Mylanthanai massacre|Mylanthanai]] and the mass murder and burial of school children at Sooriyakanda, were being hampered by the adoption of [[emergency]] [[regulations]], which were contributing to a climate of impunity. He called for the partial, if not complete, revocation of emergency regulation so that an impartial inquiry into these incidents could take place.<ref>[http://www.icescolombo.org/Neelan/ps060994.htm Speech by Neelan Tiruchelvam at the Debate on the Emergency] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120208082545/http://www.icescolombo.org/Neelan/ps060994.htm |date=2012-02-08 }}</ref>

The United States State Department noted in 1996 and 1998 that no significant headway had been made by the Sri Lankan government with regard to investigations into the mass graves at Sooriyakanda, Ankumbura and Nikaweratiya.<ref>[http://sundaytimes.lk/970202/frontm.html US gives negative report]</ref><ref>[http://www.infolanka.com/org/srilanka/issues/hu_right.html SRI LANKA HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICES - 1995]</ref><ref>[http://www.asylumlaw.org/docs/srilanka/usdos98_sri_lanka_cr.pdf SRI LANKA HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICES - 1998]</ref><ref>[http://www.ceylontoday.lk/51-68632-news-detail-sooriyakanda-student-massacre-a-survivor-recalls-the-days-of-horror.html Sooriyakanda student massacre A survivor recalls the days of horror -Ceylon Today]</ref>

==See also==
Other notable mass graves in Sri Lanka
* [[Chemmani mass grave]]
* [[Mirusuvil mass grave]]
* [[Duraiappa stadium mass grave]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20030927175824/http://www.disappearances.org/mainfile.php/frep_sl_western/41/ Cyberspace Graveyard for Disappeared Persons]
* [https://archive.today/20070714020007/http://www.cisr-irb.gc.ca/en/research/publications/index_e.htm?docid=240&cid=0&sec=CH02 Sri Lanka Political and Human Rights Update August 1996]

{{JVP}}

[[Category:1987–1989 JVP insurrection]]
[[Category:Human rights abuses in Sri Lanka]]
[[Category:Mass graves in Sri Lanka]]

Sooriyakanda mass grave - Revision history

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