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A team of Sri Lankan police officers from Colombo was deployed to Mullivaikkal this week to excavate a section of the sports ground in the eastern part of the area, where they claim weapons used by the LTTE are still buried.
The police stated that their mission was conducted under a directive from the Colombo courts.
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Similar past excavations have been futile, yielding no findings. In 2020, authorities excavated land in the Vadduvaakal area of the Mullaitivu District, following claims that LTTE weapons were buried there. With permission from the Mullaitivu District Court, a team comprising the Special Task Force (STF), police, army, and investigators conducted the operation. Despite their efforts, no weapons or materials were uncovered.
In another instance, a large-scale excavation in the Vilakkuvaithakulam area of Vavuniya also proved unsuccessful. This search was carried out after Sri Lankan police, acting on intelligence from Batticaloa, sought court approval to recover LTTE weapons. The operation, which involved heavy equipment to dig a 10-foot-deep hole, resulted in the discovery of only a crowbar used for cracking coconuts and an empty beer can.
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These repeated excavations, which often turn up nothing, have led to accusations that the Sri Lankan state forces use such operations as a cover for continued repression and surveillance in the North-East.
Even 15 years after the end of the armed conflict in Mullaitivu, these searches persist, often without results, raising concerns among the local Tamil community about their true purpose.
Though the Sri Lankan state continues to hunt for LTTE weaponry, it has refused to investigate the genocide that took place in the area, where tens of thousands of Tamils were killed in 2009.
