ALERT*** Uncovering Sri Lanka’s Hidden Genocide: Mass Graves in Tamil Regions

"Uncovering Truth, Unearthing Justice: Sri Lanka’s Hidden Mass Graves and the Vanished Voices of Tamil History."

By: Wimal Navaratnam, Human Rights Activist

Uncovering Sri Lanka’s Hidden Genocide:

Historical Context of Disappearances and Mass Graves

Sri Lanka’s 26-year civil war (1983–2009) left tens of thousands of Tamil civilians dead or forcibly disappeared, making the country one of the world’s worst for unresolved disappearances. Many families long suspected that their loved ones, taken by security forces, had been executed in secret and buried in clandestine mass graves. Those fears proved true when, in 1998, a Sri Lankan soldier on trial for rape and murder testified under oath that “300 to 400” Tamil civilians arrested during the military’s conquest of Jaffna had been executed and buried in Chemmani (a village outside Jaffna). Excavations in 1999 at Chemmani uncovered 15 skeletons, two of which were identified as young Tamil men who disappeared in army custody in 1996. This grim discovery confirmed what many Tamils had long alleged: the Sri Lankan state was eliminating detainees and hiding the evidence.

Over the ensuing decades, more than 30 mass grave sites have been found across the island. The majority lie in the Tamil-majority North and East, scene of the civil war’s worst Geno-Cide . Some sites were deliberately uncovered by investigations or tip-offs, while others surfaced by accident during construction or demining work. Each discovery briefly raised hopes of answers about the missing. Yet, not a single perpetrator has been held accountable for any of these mass burials. In many cases, the authorities have stalled or shut down inquiries, leaving the graves to decay and families to wait in anguish. As a result, these burial sites remain unresolved crime scenes — their contents silent testimony to wartime Geno-Cide , and their investigation a contentious battleground in Sri Lanka’s quest for post-war justice.

Major Mass Graves in Tamil Regions and Their Fate

Over two dozen mass graves have been identified in the Tamil homeland (Northern and Eastern provinces) alone. The table below summarizes key known sites, the circumstances of their discovery, and what (if anything) has been done since:

Mass Grave Site (Location)	Year Discovered	Remains Found	Status / Outcome	Actions and Issues
Chemmani (Jaffna district)	1998 (revealed); 1999 (exhumed); 2025 (new site)	1999: 15 skeletons (2 identified).2025: 90 skeletons so far (incl. infants).	1999: Partial exhumation, evidence of execution; no prosecutions beyond low-level soldiers, case went dormant. 2025: Excavation ongoing under court order, site guarded by CID; skeletons and personal items (toy, schoolbag) recovered.	Past: Government shelved further investigation despite soldier’s testimony of hundreds more bodies. Present: Tamil families and leaders demand international forensic supervision and revival of the case as a single inquiry with 1999 findings. Concerns over evidence tampering under local custody and security by state forces spur calls for UN oversight.
Mannar – Thiruketheeswaram (NW Mannar)	2013	≥36 skeletons (incl. children)	Excavated 2013–14 by court order after remains found during pipe-laying. Government officials later claimed it was an “ordinary old cemetery” from the 1930s. Investigation was closed without criminal inquiry.	Families and local clergy disputed the “old cemetery” explanation. No identification of remains was done. Site was effectively sealed off, and no further action taken, reflecting a pattern of official denial.
Mannar – Sathosa (CWE) Mass Grave (Mannar town)	2018	346 skeletons exhumed (largest ever in SL), including 28–29 children. Many bones showed torture (bound with metal, deep cuts).	2018–19: Major excavation under Magistrate’s supervision. Samples sent for carbon dating; a U.S. lab reported dates 1400–1650 AD, suggesting pre-war origin. This finding was widely contested by experts and families, who believe the grave holds war victims from the 1980s–90s. The case stalled in 2019 after the dating report. 2022: Mannar High Court, responding to families of the disappeared, ordered the excavation to resume as a crime scene investigation. Proceedings are ongoing.	Government’s carbon-dating claim of an ancient burial ground was vehemently disputed – even a state archaeologist insisted the remains are much more recent. Many artifacts recovered (clothing, personal items) were not analyzed for years due to neglect and lack of funds. Families’ lawyers fought to re-open the case, and courts have finally allowed victims’ relatives to observe the process. No identifications or arrests have been made to date.
Mirusuvil (Jaffna district)	2000	8 Tamil civilians (incl. children) abducted; 7 bodies found in shallow grave (1 survivor escaped to tell).	One of the few cases prosecuted: In 2000 a survivor led authorities to the grave. 5 soldiers were convicted by a civilian court in 2003; in 2015 one sergeant was sentenced to death. However, in 2020 Sri Lanka’s President pardoned the convicted sergeant. No superior officers were ever charged.	Despite a rare conviction, accountability stopped at the lowest rank. The pardon of the only soldier serving time underscores the climate of impunity. Families received no further truth about higher-level responsibility for this massacre.
Kokkuthoduvai (Mullaitivu district)	2021–2023	52+ skeletal remains excavated, many in tattered LTTE uniforms (including female fighters). Fragments of ammunition and arms were also found.	Excavations in 2021–24 were carried out in phases under a local court, amid delays. Forensic experts concluded this was a clandestine burial site from 1994–1996, likely containing bodies of Tamil Tiger cadres (and possibly others) who were extrajudicially killed. Proceedings have yet to conclude; by 2024 the government stopped funding, halting further analysis. The remains are stored at a hospital, awaiting identification attempts.	The slow, piecemeal approach drew criticism. Families suspect some remains could include civilians or fighters who surrendered in 2009. Government inaction (freezing funds, transferring officials) has left the case in limbo. Tamil groups demand transparency in determining identities of the 52 victims, but so far no DNA results or accountability.
Murukkoddanchenai (Batticaloa district, Eastern province)	2014 (approx.)	Undisclosed number of skeletons unearthed at site of a former Army camp. Local witnesses suspect victims were Tamil youths detained in the camp around 1990.	Discovered by civilians after the military vacated the area. Police quickly cordoned off the site, and officials claimed the remains might be “historical.” No formal exhumation or investigation was done – the site was effectively sealed and no findings released.	Residents had earlier testified to a commission that many who were arrested and taken to this camp in 1990 “disappeared”. The discovery of bones prompted calls for a thorough inquiry. Instead, authorities dismissed it without forensic examination – an apparent cover-up, consistent with a pattern of labeling wartime graves as “old” to avoid inquiry.
Trincomalee (city stadium) (Eastern province)	2014	~15 skeletons (eyewitness estimate), including women and children (suspected victims of a 1990 massacre).	Exposed during ground work at a playground near Fort Frederick (site of 1990 mass killings of Tamil civilians). The Sri Lankan Army quickly moved in, concealing the pit with tarps. Journalists and civil society were blocked from the area. Under military pressure, a local priest was forced to call it an “old cemetery,” and no excavation was permitted. The remains were never recovered or analyzed.	The occupying military threatened those who reported the find. An Anglican priest who alerted media received death threats and harassment by CID and Special Forces teams. Evidence (photos, testimonies) was sent to UN Human Rights Council members by activists, but no international intervention occurred. The grave was literally covered up by the army, erasing a crime scene.

Table: Key mass grave sites in the Tamil regions and their current status. All remain unresolved, with little to no justice for the victims’ families.

As the table above shows, virtually every mass grave discovered in the Tamil areas remains unresolved. In some cases partial exhumations were done, but forensic analysis was inconclusive or halted. In others, the sites were sealed off by authorities before any serious investigation could even begin. Crucially, no identified remains have been returned to families for proper burial, nor have the perpetrators been brought to justice in any of these cases. Sri Lankan officials have often downplayed the finds – for instance, by asserting that skeletons were from old cemeteries or even from medieval times – effectively shutting down inquiries. These actions have fostered deep mistrust among Tamil survivors, who see a deliberate pattern of denial, delay, and destruction of evidence designed to preserve impunity.

Recent Developments: New Excavations and Continued Revelations

Sri Lanka is now grappling with a resurgence of mass grave investigations. In early 2025, the Chemmani site that first shook the nation’s conscience decades ago returned to the spotlight. In February, construction workers in Chemmani (Jaffna) unearthed human bones by chance, prompting a magistrate to order a full excavation of the area. By mid-2025, forensic teams led by archaeologist Prof. Raj Somadeva had uncovered dozens of skeletons from the Chemmani Sindhupaththi Hindu cremation ground, including the remains of at least three babies under 1 year old. Personal effects like a child’s blue schoolbag, a toy doll, bangles, and sandals were found intermingled with the bones – heart-rending evidence indicating civilians, even infants, were among the victims. Somadeva has confirmed the site is indeed a “mass grave”, telling the court that systematic burial patterns are evident and urging further investigation across the entire cemetery grounds. By late July 2025, over 90 skeletons had been unearthed at Chemmani, making it one of the largest such sites in the north since Mannar. This ongoing exhumation, conducted under judicial supervision and tight security, is the first major mass grave dig in Jaffna in decades – and it is unfolding under intense scrutiny from both the Tamil community and the international media.

Chemmani’s reopening comes at a time of political change in Sri Lanka. In late 2024, a new government led by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake (of the leftist NPP/JVP alliance) took power, partly on promises to address the unresolved grievances of Tamils. The Chemmani mass grave has thus become a litmus test of the new administration’s commitment to accountability. Government officials have been quick to acknowledge the significance of the find. The Justice Minister Harshana Nanayakkara noted that this is “troubling relics from the past” that the state must confront, and asserted that the new government has “the complete political will” to see the probe through. Unlike previous regimes that dodged the issue, he pointed out that the ruling party itself (the JVP) had “suffered the same” fate of enforced disappearances in the south during the 1980s, implying they understand the victims’ plight. As of June 2025, authorities said 14 mass grave sites across the country (from north to south) are under examination in some form, with the Office on Missing Persons (OMP) supporting these efforts. They even allocated LKR 11.7 million (≈ $35,000) specifically for the Chemmani excavation, vowing that “money is not an issue” in pursuing the truth.

Despite these assurances, Tamil families and activists remain deeply skeptical. They have heard similar promises before. Even now, as new bones emerge daily from Chemmani’s soil, many fear the investigation will stall short of real justice – just as happened with Mannar and other sites. A local association of families of the disappeared noted that past exhumations led to “no justice or answers”, citing Chemmani 1999, Mannar, Kokkuthoduvai, and others where findings were never followed by prosecutions or truth-telling. “This could also be covered up like the other graves,” warned Mrs. Yogarasa Kanagaranjani, whose son disappeared in 2009, “If you ask the killers to give you justice, will they?”. Her bitterness reflects the enduring trust deficit – Tamil people feel the same state forces implicated in these massacres are still in charge of investigating them. Indeed, recent history validates these worries: forensic experts have complained of official obstruction, such as in Mannar where artifacts from the 2018 grave were withheld for three years, and the lead archaeologist was never paid for over a year of work. (Prof. Somadeva referred to the OMP’s handling of Mannar as “a white elephant”, noting that even basic expenses and forensic analyses were neglected.)

Notably, new mass graves continue to surface in the Tamil regions, underscoring that Chemmani is not an anomaly but part of a larger, unresolved tragedy. In July 2025, workers from a British demining charity discovered skeletal remains in Sampur (Trincomalee) – right near the site of a notorious 1990 massacre of Tamils by the Army. At least 19 bone fragments were found in what is feared to be another mass burial ground. This find immediately rekindled painful memories for survivors of the 1990 Sampur massacres, when dozens of Tamil villagers were killed by government troops and apparently dumped in unmarked graves. Tamil political leaders held memorials and demanded the authorities investigate the Sampur site without delay. Likewise, in May 2025 in Muhamalai (Kilinochchi district), remains and pieces of an LTTE uniform were reportedly uncovered during digging, suggesting yet another possible grave of combatants. These ongoing discoveries cast a long shadow – they indicate that many more “hidden cemeteries” of the war could still lie underground. Each new find galvanizes Tamil communities to push harder for truth, even as it reopens old wounds.

In summary, Sri Lanka today faces a pivotal moment: will it finally confront the grim legacy of these mass graves, or bury the truth once again? The current Chemmani exhumation – happening under the gaze of victims’ families and international observers – is a make-or-break opportunity. The government’s follow-through (or lack thereof) in this case is likely to set the tone for how all the other graves will be handled. Thus far, the bones have spoken clearly, but it remains to be seen if the state will listen. As one Tamil father searching for his brother said, each time human remains are found “families are torn between hope and fear – hopeful of finally knowing the fate of our loved ones, yet fearful that our worst nightmares are true”. That delicate balance of hope vs. despair now hangs on the actions Sri Lankan authorities take in the coming months.

Tamil Activism and Demands for Accountability

Tamil families, activists, and politicians have not remained silent in the face of official stonewalling. On the contrary, they have mounted relentless campaigns – locally and internationally – to demand accountability for these mass Geno-Cide . Key initiatives and pressures include:

• Families’ Protests and Vigils: For years, the “Mothers of the Disappeared” and other relatives have held continuous protests across the North-East, holding photographs of missing loved ones and imploring authorities for answers. At roadside memorials and offices of authorities, they keep a vigil, sometimes in silence and sometimes in agitation, refusing to let the world forget their plight. Notably, on June 5, 2025, as Chemmani’s graves were being exhumed, families of the disappeared staged a demonstration in Jaffna near the site. They held placards reading “Where are our children?” and “We want international supervision”, highlighting their complete mistrust of Sri Lanka’s mechanisms. The Association for Relatives of the Enforced Disappearances (Northern and Eastern Provinces) issued a statement that day with five clear demands, including: officially designating Chemmani as a mass grave, involving international forensic experts in the exhumation, preserving all evidence transparently, allowing free access to journalists and families, and inviting the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit the site. “We believe the truth about our disappeared loved ones will only come out if these exhumations are done openly, transparently, and with international participation,” the families declared. This grassroots pressure – sustained through hunger strikes, petitions, and memorial events – has kept the issue alive in the public sphere despite government attempts to ignore it.
• Local Political Advocacy: Elected Tamil representatives have taken up the cause, often at personal risk. The moderate Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and its constituent parties like ITAK have repeatedly raised mass grave issues in Parliament and with the President. In July 2025, the ITAK formally wrote to President Dissanayake regarding the Chemmani discoveries, calling them “clear evidence of war crimes and a genocidal campaign against the Tamil population in this country, a grave history that must be acknowledged in full”. ITAK’s letter urged immediate international oversight of the Chemmani investigation and demanded that the 1999 Chemmani case be legally merged with the 2025 probe as part of a single, ongoing crimes against humanity investigation. The party emphasized Sri Lanka’s “limited domestic forensic capacity and history of opaque handling of mass graves”, insisting that independent foreign experts be embedded at every stage. It also pointed out an egregious unresolved matter: the skeletal remains exhumed from Chemmani in 1999 were sent to the University of Glasgow for analysis and are still there decades later – never identified or returned for proper burial. “Successive governments have taken no meaningful steps to repatriate those remains or identify the victims,” ITAK noted angrily. Tamil politicians across the spectrum (even more hardline voices, like former Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran) converge on one message: only international involvement can ensure justice. Wigneswaran, now an MP, bluntly stated that Sri Lankan authorities handling evidence on their own invites tampering: all Chemmani evidence should be collected and preserved under UN supervision, “not [by] the Sri Lankan government”. He reminded the UN that it has a mandate under Resolution 46/1 (2021) to gather and secure proof of Sri Lankan war crimes, and urged them to “follow through” now. Tamil parliamentarians have also used forums like the Provincial Council (when it was functional) and various domestic commissions to document mass grave allegations and push for inquiries, albeit with limited success.
• Civil Society and Youth Initiatives: Local civil society groups, human rights organizations, and even student activists have been instrumental in keeping the spotlight on mass graves. The Adayaalam Centre for Policy Research (based in Jaffna) published analyses noting that “the same defects that plagued previous exhumations persist” at Chemmani – such as lack of clear policy, ad-hoc resourcing, and absence of international observers. They urged the government to adopt a comprehensive exhumation protocol meeting international standards and to actively seek foreign expertise to bolster credibility. Community organizations in Mannar and Batticaloa have collected testimonies from villagers about suspected massacre sites (for instance, villagers in Batticaloa gave evidence about Murukkoddanchenai to the Paranagama Commission in 2015). In Jaffna, youth activists formed groups like “People’s Action” to support the families’ struggle; they helped organize a three-day vigil called “Unextinguished Flame” in Chemmani in June 2025, timed with the UN Human Rights High Commissioner’s visit. Young volunteers set up mini-exhibitions and street dramas at the mass grave, educating the public about what happened there and urging the younger generation to learn their region’s painful history. At these events, witnesses to past crimes even came forward to share their accounts – acts of courage meant to break the culture of silence and fear. However, such civic activism isn’t without danger: intimidation and surveillance of those involved are common. In July 2025, Mr. S. Kirubakaran, a member of the Chemmani cemetery committee who filed the legal petition to start the excavation, reported that unknown vehicles were trailing him and that he felt under threat for pushing the case. He noted that since the new excavations started, several residents had approached him to share accounts of what happened at Chemmani, and that these emerging witnesses are likely the target of efforts to “suppress the truth” again. Despite this harassment, activists like Kirubakaran have vowed to continue “the ongoing pursuit of justice for the Tamil people” and not be cowed into silence.
• Diaspora and International Advocacy: The Tamil diaspora, along with international human rights NGOs, has been a loud voice globally about Sri Lanka’s mass graves. Groups of expatriate Tamils and activists have consistently raised the issue at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva. In 2014, for example, when reports emerged of the Trincomalee mass grave (the stadium site), Tamil activists quickly supplied evidence and briefings to diplomats drafting a UNHRC resolution. Although that particular instance did not make it explicitly into the resolutions, sustained lobbying by Tamil civil society contributed to landmark moves like the UNHRC’s 2015 resolution calling for a hybrid war crimes court (which Sri Lanka later reneged on), and the 2021 resolution that created a mechanism to preserve evidence. Diaspora-led organizations such as the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) and the International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) have compiled dossiers on mass grave incidents, hoping to trigger prosecutions outside Sri Lanka under universal jurisdiction laws. These efforts have seen some limited traction – e.g. lawsuits filed in foreign courts against alleged Sri Lankan war criminals – but no major trial yet. Nevertheless, the diaspora’s advocacy has kept international attention on Sri Lanka’s accountability deficit. Major human rights organizations including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch echo these calls. Amnesty flatly stated in 2020 and again in 2025 that Sri Lanka “has not seen a single instance” where a mass grave exhumation led to remains being identified and returned to families, which is “entirely unacceptable”. They and others have urged that international observers and forensic experts be embedded in all future exhumations to prevent state cover-ups, and that witness protection be provided so that survivors can testify without fear. This external pressure – via UNHRC sessions, reports, and even targeted sanctions on Sri Lankan military officials – is a crucial lever that Tamil activists continue to engage, wary that without it, momentum for justice will fade.

Through these combined efforts, Tamil activists have built a compelling case that Sri Lanka’s justice system cannot be trusted on its own to handle the atrocity of mass graves. The clear mistrust is symbolized by a common refrain in the Tamil protests: “Don’t let the fox guard the henhouse.” For example, families were alarmed that Sri Lanka’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and local police were put in charge of securing the Chemmani grave site. While it is standard for police to guard crime scenes, in this context it means the very institutions suspected of committing the crimes are controlling the evidence. To mitigate this, families of the missing have literally joined the security rota at Chemmani – standing watch at the gates alongside the police to ensure no tampering occurs. Activists like Wigneswaran stress that maintaining a strict chain of custody for remains and artifacts is vital; if evidence is mishandled by local authorities, any future prosecutions could be undermined. Their fears are not hypothetical – there have been instances of evidence “disappearing”. In Mannar’s case, crucial items from the grave (pieces of women’s clothing, jewelry, and torture implements) reportedly went missing or were not documented properly during the long delays. Given this history, Tamils have consistently pressed for international monitoring as the only way to ensure integrity. As one Tamil activist starkly put it, “If you expect those who killed our people to also investigate these graves, you will never get the truth.”

International Response and the Road Ahead for Justice

The international community – from the United Nations to foreign governments – has slowly awakened to the grim reality of Sri Lanka’s mass graves, but concrete action has lagged behind the rhetoric of concern. UN bodies and officials have, in recent years, started paying closer attention to these sites as part of Sri Lanka’s post-war accountability obligations. In 2019 and 2022, reports by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) highlighted the mass grave issue, noting the “insufficient financial, human and technical resources to conduct exhumations in line with international standards” and explicitly encouraging Sri Lanka to seek international assistance in this regard. This was a diplomatic way of saying Sri Lanka needs help – and scrutiny – to properly handle these graves. In fact, the UN Human Rights Council passed Resolution 46/1 in March 2021, which, among other things, set up a special Internal Accountability Mechanism in Geneva to collect and preserve evidence of serious crimes in Sri Lanka. Mass graves and enforced disappearances are a core focus of that mechanism. While it is not an international court, it functions as a sort of UN archive and investigation team, meant to eventually share evidence with any future prosecutions (domestic or foreign). Tamil advocates welcomed this as an overdue step, though they continue to push for a more direct judicial process.

A notable development came in June 2025: the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mr. Volker Türk, visited Sri Lanka and made it a point to tour the Chemmani mass grave site. His visit – the first by a UN rights chief to the north since 2016 – was symbolically powerful. In Chemmani, Türk met with grieving mothers and fathers who have protested for years, and he listened to their stories. Standing at the edge of the excavated pits, he told the media, “It is always very emotional to visit places where the haunting past becomes so visible”, acknowledging the profound pain of families who do not know the fate of their loved ones. Türk affirmed that this visit was “a step further to accountability and justice” and emphasized the need for robust, independent forensic investigations to “bring out the truth, bring closure to the pain and suffering of family members”. Importantly, he echoed the activists’ demands that such investigations be done by experts “with international expertise” to ensure credibility. Following his visit, Türk publicly reiterated that Sri Lanka must deliver justice – not just exhume bones, but identify victims and hold perpetrators accountable. The UN High Commissioner’s engagement has given a morale boost to Tamil families, who for years have asked that high-level UN officials see with their own eyes the evidence on the ground.

International human rights organizations and some foreign diplomats have likewise been urging Sri Lanka to allow more international participation. Amnesty International’s South Asia office, for example, said the Chemmani excavation “could be an important step towards truth and justice” if and only if it is carried out according to international standards. Amnesty called on the government to ensure sufficient funding and transparency, warning against any attempt to rush or obscure the process. They also pointed out that as a signatory to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, Sri Lanka has a legal obligation to reveal the truth to families of the disappeared. Similarly, Human Rights Watch and the UN Working Group on Enforced Disappearances have repeatedly noted Sri Lanka’s failure to credibly investigate mass graves, adding pressure at international forums for some form of external oversight or hybrid mechanism.

The question of justice for the perpetrators of these mass killings looms large. To date, Sri Lanka has not prosecuted or punished the architects of the Geno-Cide  reflected in the mass graves (with the lone exception of the low-ranking soldier in the Mirusuvil case, who was later pardoned). Tamil leaders and international observers increasingly talk of turning to international courts if Sri Lanka does not act. Options discussed include an International Criminal Court (ICC) referral via the UN Security Council or the creation of an ad-hoc international tribunal (akin to those for Yugoslavia or Rwanda). However, these options face steep geopolitical hurdles – ICC referral could be vetoed by allies of Sri Lanka, and an ad-hoc court would require broad international consensus that has so far been lacking. Another avenue is universal jurisdiction, where individual countries prosecute foreign war criminals under their own laws. There have been some attempts: for instance, Tamil victims filed civil suits in the United States against a former Sri Lankan defense secretary, and investigative complaints in countries like Switzerland and Australia against ex-military officials, alleging torture and war crimes. These have yet to yield a trial, but they send a signal that if Sri Lanka doesn’t deliver justice, others may attempt to. Additionally, a few countries have imposed travel bans and sanctions on certain Sri Lankan military commanders credibly accused of war crimes. In 2020, the United States banned Army commander Shavendra Silva from entry over his role in abuses at the war’s end. Such measures, while not trials, do impose some accountability pressure on individuals.

Within Sri Lanka, the Office on Missing Persons and other bodies have so far proven too weak or compromised to deliver justice, leading even moderate observers to conclude that only international action can break the cycle of impunity. As the Tamil Guardian put it, “For all its rhetoric of reconciliation, the Sri Lankan state... has demonstrated time and again that it is neither willing nor able to investigate its crimes... Domestic mechanisms have clearly borne no results... In such a climate, there is no credible path to justice without international oversight.”. That sentiment is now widely shared by victim groups and human rights advocates. It places the onus on the global community to translate concern into action. One concrete step, activists suggest, would be for the UN Sri Lanka office and UNHRC’s evidence-gathering mechanism to actively assist the Chemmani investigation under Resolution 46/1’s mandate. This could mean deploying international forensic anthropologists and archaeologists to work alongside locals, providing technical expertise and an independent eye. As Wigneswaran argued, “Independent forensic teams or international experts, not the Sri Lankan government, should handle evidence collection and analysis” at Chemmani and other grave sites. Such involvement would also reassure Tamil families that someone neutral is watching the process. Furthermore, evidence preserved by the UN’s team in Geneva could be used in the future by any international tribunal or national court cases abroad. Essentially, it “keeps the door open” for justice if political winds change.

The implications of failing to act are dire not just for Sri Lanka, but for global norms. If these latest discoveries are once again swept under the rug, it would send a signal worldwide that a state can commit mass Geno-Cide  against its own citizens and simply wait out the outrage until memory fades. Tamil activists often remind the world that accountability in Sri Lanka isn’t only about the past; it’s also about preventing future Geno-Cide . They note that the Sri Lankan military still heavily occupies the Tamil areas and has even been protecting the sites of past crimes (like building camps over them or swiftly labeling them off-limits). This militarization and erasure of evidence perpetuate a sense of oppression and insecurity for Tamils. Conversely, pursuing justice – even at this late stage – could help break the cycle. Memorialization and acknowledgement would allow families to grieve properly, and prosecutions would show that no one is above the law.

In conclusion, the “fate” of Sri Lanka’s mass graves remains uncertain. What is clear is that Tamil survivors and activists will not let the issue die. Their persistence, from staging daily roadside vigils to lobbying world powers, has kept these buried crimes in the light. As one poignant banner at a recent protest read: “The dead cannot speak – so we speak for them.” They are speaking, loudly. The coming months will reveal whether the Sri Lankan state and the international community are truly listening. Will there be exhumations done to international standards, independent forensic analyses, and ultimately, charges brought against those responsible? Or will these sites join the long list of “cases that went cold,” mossed over and forgotten? The Chemmani excavation – guarded by police, yet watched intently by survivors – is the first real test. If it yields truth and accountability, it could set a precedent to finally address the over 30 other mass graves that pockmark the Tamil homeland. If it fails, Sri Lanka risks entrenching a culture of impunity so deep that the scars of war may never heal. The world, too, would have failed – in the words of the Tamil families, it would mean that “states can commit mass murder, bury the evidence, and escape justice”. For now, a cautious hope persists that the truth buried in Sri Lanka’s killing fields will finally be unearthed, and that those responsible will one day face the verdict of history and law. The bones demand nothing less.

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Sources: The information in this report is drawn from a wide range of sources, including investigative journalism, human rights reports, and local Tamil media. Key references include reports from Tamil Guardian on the Chemmani exhumations, analysis by New Lines Magazine quantifying mass graves, ground reports from Al Jazeera and The Hindu, as well as documentation by diaspora outlets like TamilNet and JDS. These sources collectively testify to the pattern of Geno-Cide  and impunity discussed above. Each inline citation (e.g.,) corresponds to the specific source and line references supporting the statement.

     In solidarity,

     Wimal Navaratnam

     Human Rights Advocate | ABC Tamil Oli (ECOSOC)

      Email: tamilolicanada@gmail.com

References

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