 Local newspapers, including "The Island" and the "Sunday Times", have reported that, although the 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 hostilities with the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) began.Notable international jurist Neelan Thiruchelvam, in a speech at the ICES-Colombo, indicated that the appropriate investigations into massacres and disappearances of civilians, including many children in the Sathurukondan, Eastern University, 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.