A mass grave and buried wrongs

During the Civil War in Sri Lanka from 1983 to 2009 between the ethnic Tamils demanding a historical homeland and the Sri Lankan State, innocent Tamils had to bear the brunt of the military occupation of their lives and land. Thousands of Tamils bore severe torture, rape, arbitrary detention and arrests, disappearances, and a host of other violations as part of the ruthless State-sponsored suppression of their rights.

In February 2025, workers constructing a crematorium discovered human remains in Chemmani, a small village in the Jaffna peninsula of the Tamil heartland in Northern Sri Lanka. The Jaffna Magistrate immediately ordered an investigation – 101 skeletal remains, including three children’s, were found since the beginning of excavations in May. The presence of the remains of children indicates that families were killed and buried.

In 2018, at Mannar, 300 bodies were discovered after exhumations, but the case was closed. The families of the disappeared fear the same might happen in Chemmani. So far, only a partial excavation of the suspected sites has been undertaken. The disappearance of Tamils in Sri Lanka since the 1980s is considered one of the highest per capita disappearances in the world. It is estimated that tens of thousands of Tamils disappeared during the war. To date, 146,679 people are unaccounted for during the last stages of the war.

Though 28 mass graves were identified, none of them were properly investigated, as it would have exposed the hand of the armed forces. Disappearances and subsequent mass burials of the disappeared Tamils in the North and East of Sri Lanka surfaced from the time of the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF)’s engagement since 1987. Since the capture of Jaffna by the Sri Lankan armed forces in 1995-96, disappearances, rape, and torture became common. In 1998, a former army corporal, Somaratne Rajapakse, who was found guilty of the rape and murder of Krishanthy Kumaraswamy in 1996, alleged that he was sure of around 400 bodies being buried at Chemmani, the site of the infamous mass burials of disappeared Tamils in Jaffna. The then government of Chandrika Kumaratunge ordered an investigation, and the exhumations started. As bodies were found in large numbers, bucking under domestic political pressure, she ordered the closure of investigations in 1999.

Chemmani remained an unhealed wound in the minds of the Tamils. Since then, many mass graves have been found, but a lack of will on the part of the successive governments has denied the Tamils the right to know about their missing kith and kin. Several commissions were established, but their final reports were never made public.

A long wait

Under international law, a State commits an enforced disappearance when it takes a person into custody and denies holding them or disclosing their whereabouts. “Disappeared” persons are commonly subjected to torture or extrajudicial execution. Enforced Disappearance is the worst torture, not just on the individuals but also on the families.

Since the passing of the first UN resolution in 2012 demanding international investigations, Sri Lanka hardly responded until 2015. Under International pressure, the government in 2015 set up the Office of the Missing Persons, which is yet to trace people who went missing until 2009. Most of those who disappeared had surrendered to the armed forces during the last stages of the war.

On June 25, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk visited the mass grave at Chemmani. He expressed solidarity with the families of the missing and demanded justice for every victim. Turk called for independent international investigations with forensic experts to ascertain the truth, which could help the families identify their loved ones and lead them towards seeking justice.

As people in the North and East wait for details about the missing members of their families, braving harsh weather, poverty, and social isolation, there are no graves or tombstones left to remember the victims. While the families hold memorials on roadside tents and shacks, their collective marches to remind the authorities of their demand for justice are met with police or military resistance. Tamils fear that the missing will become a mere memory, lost to time when the loved ones who remember them pass away, along with the truth about what happened, burying justice. Yet, Chemmani has again awakened the Sri Lankan Tamils world over to demand another chance at justice for the victims.

(The writer is Professor and Dean of Social Sciences, St. Joseph’s University, and Principal, St. Joseph’s Evening College)