8 Sri Lankans Held by Army Are Found in Mass Grave

Eight civilians belonging to this country’s minority Tamil ethnic group were found in a mass grave in the northern Jaffna peninsula a week after they were detained by soldiers, military officials and a Tamil rebel Web site said Tuesday.

Eight soldiers and an officer were arrested.

The bodies, which included that of a 5-year-old boy, were discovered buried in the village of Thenmaradchi on the war-racked peninsula Monday, military spokesman Brig. Sanath Karunaratne said.

The spokesman said an investigation was underway to determine the soldiers’ possible role in the deaths.

The military said the victims were detained by the servicemen Dec. 19.

“Until we complete our investigation, we cannot say if they had any hand in the crime,” he said.

The Sri Lankan military, fighting a war against Tamil Tiger separatists, has often been accused of violating human rights in Jaffna, a Tamil-majority province where most of the war is being fought.

Troops routinely patrol villages in the peninsula and pick up Tamils for questioning. In most cases, the detainees are set free after it is established that they do not have links with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the separatist group.

The rebels have been fighting since 1983 for an independent Tamil homeland in the north and east of this island nation in a war that has killed more than 63,000 people. They say the Tamils, who make up 3.2 million of Sri Lanka’s 18.6 million people, can prosper only away from the Sinhalese, who number 14 million.

Also Tuesday, a cyclone packing winds of up to 97 mph hit the eastern Sri Lankan port town of Trincomalee, forcing 25,000 people from their homes, a relief official and the Meteorological Department said.