New tipoffs on locations of more possible wartime mass graves

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Investigators who found what is believed to be a wartime mass grave in the southeastern city of Lappeenranta have been getting new tipoffs of possible locations of other burial sites.
      On Tuesday last week investigators said that a grave containing the remains of 11 people had been found at the city’s Huhtiniemi camping area. Later many have been in touch with the excavators on other spots worth digging up.
      "There have been many contacts. Some refer to the same locations, while others point to slightly different places", says Mika Lavento, a professor of archaeology.
      Police have also been contacted over the discoveries in Huhtiniemi. According to the head of the investigation, Olli Töyräs, the National Bureau of Investigation is looking into the veracity of some of the reports.
     
The excavations at Huhtiniemi were sparked by reports of secret executions of deserters in the final stages of the Continuation War in the summer of 1944.
      One man, who was an artillery petty officer during the Continuation war, told investigators that a mass grave could be located beneath a lawn near a water intake spot by the lake.
      He had heard about men being taken to the area in the late summer of 1944, but he only heard about the graves in Huhtiniemi the next winter.
      Some competitors in a skiing race invited the man to look at a mass grave, which was reportedly located in sandy soil near what was then a firing range.
     
The veteran described the location to an acquaintance, Pentti Pylkkö of nearby Savitaipale, who said that there was only one possible location that the story could refer to.
      Neither the veteran nor Pylkkö know exactly what transpired in Huhtiniemi, and whether or not people had actually been buried there. However, both hope that the matter would be clarified.
     
Olli Töyräs says that it is possible that more digging would take place on the basis of information passed on to the investigators.
      "If people are found who could give first-hand information, then by all means", he says.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Remains of 11 men found in mass grave in southeastern Finland (18.10.2006)

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