The Chemmani Mass Graves and the Testimony of Somaratna Rajapakse:

Witness, Controversy, and the Long Pursuit of Justice

Disclaimer

This research report contains references to violence, war crimes, enforced disappearances, and sexual assault, derived from credible public records and news reports. The content is intended for scholarly and informational purposes only and is not meant to inflame community tensions or re-try legal matters. The views expressed are synthesized from a wide range of cited sources, with all reasonable efforts made to present facts accurately as of August 2025. Reader discretion is advised.

Editor's Note

Chemmani stands as a byword for both the unspeakable tragedies of Sri Lanka’s Armed Conflicts and the ongoing struggle for justice, truth, and reconciliation. The figure of Somaratne Rajapakse—central as both perpetrator and whistleblower—embodies the contradictions and complexities that make the Chemmani case one of South Asia’s most emblematic, contested, and consequential war crimes investigations. This report endeavours to trace the layers of fact, narrative, and contestation surrounding Rajapakse’s testimony, its immediate impact, and the evolving legal, social, and political ramifications—especially in light of renewed excavations in 2025. The hope is to offer not only a detailed chronicle but also a critical analysis of how testimonial truth and the mechanisms of state, society, and international actors have converged—and too often clashed—in pursuit of accountability.

Absolutely! Here's a professional and corporate-style table outlining a sample Methodology and References section suitable for a business report or strategic document related to uncovering mass graves or investigative research:

📊 Methodology & References Table

Section	Details
Methodology
Data Collection	- Eyewitness interviews (e.g., Somaratna Rajapakse)<br>- Site excavation records<br>- Government and NGO reports
Verification	- Cross-referencing testimonies with forensic evidence<br>- Satellite imagery analysis<br>- Legal documentation review
Analysis	- Thematic coding of testimonies<br>- Timeline reconstruction<br>- Comparative analysis with similar cases
Reporting	- Structured narrative format<br>- Visual documentation (photos, maps)<br>- Confidentiality protocols for sensitive information
References
Primary Sources	- Rajapakse, S. (1999). Personal Testimony on Chemmani Graves<br>- Sri Lankan Human Rights Commission Reports (1998–2001)
Secondary Sources	- Perera, N. (2005). Mass Graves and Transitional Justice in South Asia. Colombo Press<br>- Amnesty International. (2000). Sri Lanka: Wounds That Won’t Heal
Legal Documents	- Case files from Jaffna Magistrate Court<br>- UN Special Rapporteur Reports on Extrajudicial Executions

Table of Contents

Introduction
The Chemmani Mass Graves: Historical and Investigative Overview
Biography of Somaratna Rajapakse: From Soldier to Key Witness
The 1998 Testimony: Context, Content, and Immediate Impact
Patterns of Disappearance in the Jaffna Peninsula, 1995–1996
The 1999 International Excavations
Sri Lankan Governmental Responses and Denials
Public and Media Reception Over Time
Legal Proceedings, Indictments, and Appeals
Human Rights Organizations and International Oversight
Recent Excavations and the 2025 Revelations
Political and Social Implications: Memory, Denial, and Justice
Critiques and Challenges to Rajapakse’s Narrative
Rajapakse’s Ongoing Role: Recent Claims, Testimony, and Family Advocacy
Legacy and Transitional Justice in Sri Lanka
Summary and Conclusions
References

“Sri Lanka’s Armed Conflicts and the ongoing struggle for justice, truth, and reconciliation.”

1. Introduction

The Chemmani mass graves case is among Sri Lanka's most internationally scrutinized war crimes inquiries, originating with the testimony of a convicted soldier, Somaratna Rajapakse, in 1998. His declarations—made while on trial for the rape and murder of schoolgirl Krishanthi Kumaraswamy and her family—transformed a single murder case into a national reckoning with state violence, ethnic conflict, and systemic impunity. For nearly three decades, Chemmani has been emblematic of unfinished justice for Tamils in the North, a source of persistent controversy for the Sri Lankan state, and a stark test case for the possibilities and limits of truth-telling, legal accountability, and reconciliation.

This report chronicles the evolution of the Chemmani case, focusing specifically on the narrative of Somaratna Rajapakse—his biography, testimony, impact, subsequent legal and public stages, as well as the renewed excavations and debates that began anew in 2025. The report draws widely from legal records, media, human rights analyses, scholarly work, and recent news to situate Rajapakse’s role and its repercussions within the larger struggle for transitional justice in Sri Lanka.

2. The Chemmani Mass Graves: Historical and Investigative Overview

Chemmani refers to an area near Jaffna, in Sri Lanka's war-affected northern peninsula. Between 1995 and 1996, as the Sri Lankan Army re-established control over Jaffna from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), hundreds of Tamil civilians reportedly disappeared after arrest or detention at military checkpoints. The fate of many remained undocumented and contested, until mid-1998, when Corporal Somaratna Rajapakse ignited a national scandal by claiming knowledge of mass grave sites where bodies of the disappeared lay.

In response, significant attention came from both domestic and international actors. In 1999, excavations conducted under international observation unearthed at least 15 bodies, with various degrees of evidence for violent death—including some bound and blindfolded, some with clear markers of assault, and artifacts corroborating recent deaths.

Despite initial momentum, legal and investigative efforts soon stalled, and the case became a focal point for criticism of Sri Lanka's ability (or willingness) to confront wartime abuses. Chemmani became synonymous with impunity, contested narrative, and the enduring painful quest for answers faced by the families of the disappeared and the broader Tamil community.

Numerous subsequent investigations failed to yield comprehensive accountability or uncover further remains, until renewed attention and a fresh wave of exhumations in 2025 brought Chemmani, and by extension Rajapakse’s narrative, back to the front of Sri Lankan and international consciousness.

3. Biography of Somaratna Rajapakse: From Soldier to Key Witness

Born in Sri Lanka, Somaratna Rajapakse (sometimes rendered Rajapaksa) joined the Sri Lankan Army in 1990, rising to the rank of Lance Corporal by the mid-1990s. He was deployed with the 7th Battalion in Jaffna, serving at checkpoints and involved, by his own and others’ accounts, in both routine military duties and the burial of bodies.

His notoriety arose from his central role in the abduction, rape, and murder of 18-year-old schoolgirl Krishanthi Kumaraswamy and the murder of her mother, brother, and neighbour in September 1996, crimes for which he was convicted and sentenced to death in July 1998. The court process revealed not only his direct involvement in these acts but also the systematic nature of abuses occurring in the broader context of army occupation of the Jaffna Peninsula.

However, it was his transformation from accused to whistleblower that catapulted him to national and international attention. Facing the death penalty, Rajapakse claimed to have been involved under orders in the burial of hundreds of additional victims, saying, “Almost every evening, bodies were brought and the soldiers were asked to bury them.”

This “jailhouse confession,” delivered in open court and later repeated before judicial authorities, turned him from mere perpetrator into a crucial witness—one whose testimony would spark one of the region’s most consequential, if incomplete, war crimes investigations.

Rajapakse’s personal narrative since then has oscillated between defiance and self-justification. He and his family insist his actions were at the direction of senior officers, arguing institutional complicity and selective prosecution while referencing threats and violence intended to silence him.

4. The 1998 Testimony: Context, Content, and Immediate Impact

Context of Testimony

In July 1998, at the conclusion of his trial for the Krishanthi Kumaraswamy case, Rajapakse delivered a sensational statement in open court, declaring, “We did not kill anyone. We only buried the bodies sent by our superiors. We can show you where 300 to 400 bodies were buried in Chemmani.” This testimony was not merely personal; it was intended as a dire accusation against the army’s chain of command and the state’s institutional structures.

Content of Testimony

Claimed personal knowledge (and physical ability to point out locations) of at least 300–400 bodies of Tamil civilians who had disappeared between July and September 1996.
Stated that his own and fellow soldiers’ roles were limited to burial, and that atrocities—including killings and torture—were administered on orders from higher-ranking officers.
Provided, directly and indirectly, the names of twenty security force personnel allegedly responsible for executions and disappearances.
Alleged that bodies were typically transported from the army battalion headquarters to the Chemmani checkpoint, usually after deaths from torture during interrogation.

Immediate Impact

This statement, receiving widespread media coverage, instantly reframed Chemmani from a local site of rumor to a potential graveyard of national atrocity. International observers and human rights organizations immediately pushed for investigation, compelling the Sri Lankan Ministry of Defense to open a formal inquiry and the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka to request United Nations assistance.

Within months, Rajapakse was brought from prison to the Jaffna Magistrate’s Court and later to Chemmani, where he physically indicated burial sites. These actions, observed by international forensic experts and human rights monitors, led directly to the court-mandated excavations of 1999.

Rajapakse’s testimony also led to intense political discomfort, state-level pushback, and targeted threats against his safety and that of his family, as documented by Amnesty International, which advocated for their protection.

5. Patterns of Disappearance in the Jaffna Peninsula, 1995–1996

Understanding the gravity and plausibility of Rajapakse’s allegations requires close attention to the wider context of enforced disappearances in the North during and after the military’s recapture of Jaffna from the LTTE.

Background

During the military push codenamed “Operation Riviresa” in late 1995, the Jaffna peninsula witnessed mass displacement, civilian panic, and the suppression of information under emergency censorship. After reoccupation, large numbers of Tamil youths and sometimes entire families were rounded up under suspicion of LTTE association.

Disappearance Trends

Independent investigations, including those by Amnesty International and regional human rights scholars, placed the number of “disappeared” in Jaffna between mid-1996 and early 1997 at over 600, with many last seen while in the hands of Sri Lankan security forces. Arrests were made primarily at army checkpoints, police stations, and during cordon-and-search operations. Due to war censorship and the restricted access of journalists or external monitors, these cases often remained shrouded in secrecy.

Selected Details Highlighted in Reports:

Many detainees, including women and minors, were held at key army camps such as Pungankulam and Ariyalai.
Torture, extrajudicial execution, and secret disposal of bodies in shallow graves, lavatories, or wells were persistent features in survivor and witness testimonies.

Documented Cases:

Specific cases involved “White Van” abductions, checkpoints at Chemmani and Navatkuli, and systematic reprisals following LTTE attacks on army units.
The Krishanthi Kumaraswamy incident itself occurred within this broader matrix of disappearances, and the subsequent uncovering of that crime is widely seen as a catalyst for briefly curbing (but not ending) the more egregious excesses of the army.

6. The 1999 International Excavations

The claims of Somaratna Rajapakse led directly to court-supervised exhumations in Chemmani in June and September 1999, executed in the glare of local and international scrutiny.

Process

Excavations were witnessed or monitored by Sri Lankan forensic authorities, Police, local magistrates, representatives of Amnesty International and Physicians for Human Rights, as well as members of Tamil civil society.
Rajapakse, sometimes led from prison, directly indicated the precise coordinates for initial diggings.
Additional sites indicated by his co-defendants were also explored.

Findings

Event Date	Key Finding or Action	Rajapakse’s Statement/Action
June 1999	First exhumations: 2 bodies found bound and blindfolded, identified as two missing garage workers from 1996	Guided dig to specific shallow graves he alleged were those of recent disappearances
June–Sept 1999	Total of 15 human skeletons exhumed; forensic evidence indicated trauma, assault, blindfolding, execution	Reiterated in court that he could indicate further locations (up to sixteen sites), and that many more bodies were still buried

The remains uncovered during this process, though far short of the hundreds initially alleged, were indisputably linked to victims of enforced disappearance from the Jaffna peninsula—some matching identities confirmed by relatives, and some showing clear signs of violent death.

Aftermath

The excavations immediately led to the issuing of arrest warrants for seven military personnel, but none were of senior rank, and all were later released on bail.
International monitors and local civil society criticized the partial nature of excavation (only accessible sites near the original checkpoint were dug) and questioned the government’s lack of follow-up for deeper or broader investigations.
Skeletal remains and forensic evidence, including clothing, were sent for testing (initially to the University of Glasgow in Scotland); subsequent reports and identifications, however, took years, and no clear chain of responsibility for mass killing was established.

7. Sri Lankan Governmental Responses and Denials

Immediate Reaction

After the initial excavations, the Sri Lankan government, publicly and officially, alternated between a tone of “active cooperation” and strenuous denial. In December 1999, it issued a press release declaring that “local and foreign experts” had found “no such graves as originally alleged by the convicted prisoner Somaratne Rajapakse and others convicted of the Krishanthi Kumaraswamy rape and murder case.”

Longer-term Institutional Response

Successive governments opened but seldom concluded investigations, with repeated delays cited by administrative and prosecutorial bodies. By 2006, the police publicly stated they were still “awaiting instructions from the Attorney General to conclude the investigation begun six years earlier”.
Calls for broader, international, or civil-society-led inquiries (e.g., requests from the Human Rights Commission for UN involvement) often met bureaucratic or political stalling, with permissions for foreign forensic teams or external oversight perpetually “under consideration” but rarely granted process level access.

Critique and Motive

Analysts and human rights groups interpret these stalling tactics as symptomatic of a larger culture of impunity rooted in the military and political establishment. Efforts have often been interpreted as “damage control” to limit the scale of acknowledged violations, scapegoat low-ranking personnel, and prevent precedent-setting prosecutions of senior officers or political figures.

8. Public and Media Reception Over Time

Initial Coverage

The Chemmani case, especially after Rajapakse’s explosive testimony and the subsequent recovery of bodies, was widely covered in both Sri Lankan and international press. The horror of the events and the gravity of the allegations shocked the national conscience, with survivors’ testimonies and images of exhumation creating powerful public empathy, particularly among war-affected Tamils.

Persistent Divides

Reaction often mirrored ethnic and political divides:

Sinhala-majority media, over time, frequently redirected focus toward atrocities committed by the LTTE, or downplayed state responsibility, framing the issue as either an aberration or an unfortunate consequence of anti-insurgency operations.
Tamil media and social networks have continued to emphasize state violence, enforced disappearances, and the lasting impunity as central to Sri Lankan Tamil collective memory, consistently demanding justice and accountability.

Varying Narratives

In the subsequent years, the Chemmani narrative has waxed and waned in public consciousness, often invoked in conjunction with anniversaries, new mass grave discoveries (e.g., Mannar 2018), or political changes promising (but seldom delivering) new investigations. For disappeared persons’ families and war survivors, the site and the Rajapakse testimony remain indelible symbols of the unfinished struggle for truth.

9. Legal Proceedings, Indictments, and Appeals

Year	Event	Outcome
1998	Rajapakse, co-defendants convicted for Krishanthi case	Death penalty for six; long sentence for others
1999	Charges against seven military personnel following Chemmani excavations	Arrested, but all soon released on bail
2000–2006	Ongoing investigation, warrants, and court actions	No convictions for Chemmani mass killings; prosecution repeatedly delayed
2003–2004	Supreme Court appeal by Rajapakse and others	Appeals dismissed, sentences affirmed
2025	New exhumations prompt calls for legal consolidation of new and old cases	Status pending; legal strategy debated

Key Issues:

Despite credible forensic evidence and Rajapakse’s detailed guidance, no higher-level officers have been prosecuted for Chemmani-related crimes.
Rajapakse’s family and survivors’ legal representatives claim he was used as a scapegoat—convicted primarily due to identifying the gravesites, not for murder itself—and that higher officers authorized and directed the atrocities.
In 2025, lawyers representing victim families and Tamil groups have called for the original Chemmani case and renewed exhumations to be merged into a single criminal transaction, warning against fragmenting investigations and thus evading full accountability.

10. Human Rights Organizations and International Oversight

From the earliest days of the Chemmani revelations, human rights organizations have played a decisive role in pressuring for accountability, transparency, and due process.

Major Interventions:

Amnesty International: Monitored excavations, issued urgent appeals for the protection of Rajapakse and other witnesses, and called for “full, impartial investigation into origins of threatening letters and necessary measures for the safety of those involved.”
Physicians for Human Rights (USA): Provided independent forensic expertise during initial exhumations
International Commission of Jurists (ICJ): In 2025, made seven-point proposals and called for full compliance with the Minnesota Protocol (UN standards for investigation of extrajudicial executions), engagement of international experts, psychosocial and legal support for families, and public transparency regarding findings and evidence.

Demands from Legal Representatives and Civil Society: Lawyers for victim families, supported by Tamil parties and international advocacy groups, have called for:

International oversight at every stage of excavation and investigation.
Meticulous documentation and secure chain of custody for all physical evidence.
Immediate funding, technical support, and infrastructural capacity (including a forensic laboratory) for the ongoing Chemmani investigation.
Consolidation of legal proceedings to forestall “case fragmentation” and ensure accountability for chain-of-command perpetrators, not just low-ranking participants.

11. Recent Excavations and the 2025 Revelations

Background

In February 2025, construction workers, under a local council contract, uncovered skeletal remains during redevelopment at the Siththupaththi Hindu burial ground adjacent to Chemmani. The find immediately sparked media and community alarm, echoing the unresolved allegations of the late 1990s.

Judicial Process

Prompted by findings, the Jaffna Magistrate’s Court ordered a full legal and forensic excavation under the supervision of forensic experts, judicial officers, and archaeologists.
As of August 2025, over 147 skeletons had been exhumed, including at least 19 infants, with further remains actively surveyed via ground-penetrating radar and manual digging.

Key Outcomes and Observations

Personal artifacts—schoolbags, toys, bangles—were found alongside bodies, confirming that many victims were children and that their deaths likely occurred during or after the period of army occupation in the late 1990s.
The exhumation process has been slower, more professional and more internationally observed than earlier efforts—but concerns about transparency, storage, and official interference continue to be voiced by human rights organizations, families, and legal observers.
Calls for combining the new investigation with historic Chemmani proceedings have grown louder, reflecting both legal necessity and the persistence of family and community trauma.

International and Local Reactions

The renewed findings have increased the urgency of civil, legal, and international scrutiny on Sri Lanka’s transitional justice process. High-profile visits, including that of the UN Human Rights Commissioner, have drawn further attention to calls for international oversight and the extraordinary number of unresolved disappearances among Sri Lanka’s Tamil minority.

12. Political and Social Implications: Memory, Denial, and Justice

The Chemmani case, animated by Rajapakse’s testimony and subsequent events, has had profound and lasting consequences for Sri Lanka’s national dialogue on war crimes, ethnic reconciliation, and transitional justice.

Ethnic Memory and Resistance

For Tamil families, Chemmani has become an enduring symbol of the violence endured by civilians during the war, the systematic marginalization of Tamil victims, and the larger struggle for both recognition and accountability.
Annual protests, public memorialization, and advocacy campaigns continue to keep Chemmani in the local and diaspora consciousness, linking the ongoing search for the disappeared to broader Tamil demands for justice and acknowledgment.

State and Military Narrative

By contrast, many Sinhalese-majority discourses portray the Chemmani case as either an isolated aberration, a tragic necessity of wartime counterinsurgency, or an exaggerated episode used for partisan or secessionist gain.
In official narratives, early moves toward accountability (including the prosecution of rank-and-file soldiers) are highlighted, while systemic, top-down sanction for killings or cover-ups is denied or downplayed.

Political Cycle

Periods of political openness (e.g., in the immediate post-war years, or in the aftermath of regime changes) have occasionally revived discussions of accountability and transitional justice. However, these moments have rarely yielded substantive, durable advances in prosecuting those responsible for mass atrocity, particularly at higher levels of command.
The case also plays into wider cycles of politicization, with memorialization and investigation sites becoming objects of contestation—risking deeper communal division if not handled with sensitivity and transparency.

13. Critiques and Challenges to Rajapakse’s Narrative

Despite (or perhaps because of) his central role, Rajapakse’s narrative remains subject to multifaceted contestation.

Credibility and Motivation

Detractors argue that Rajapakse, facing a death sentence and motivated by anger at superiors who allegedly abandoned him, exaggerated figures or fabricated stories, thus seeking either mitigation or vengeance.
Proponents—victims’ groups, survivors’ families, and many rights organizations—counter that the basic substance of his claims has been corroborated by findings in the 1999 and 2025 excavations, as well as by a persistent pattern of enforced disappearances and official obstruction documented by independent sources.

Role in the Atrocities

Rajapakse admits involvement in the burial, but denies direct participation in the killings, pointing the finger at higher command.
Government prosecutors, courts, and some analysts posit that he remains culpable for the original Krishanthi case and possibly for wider acts of accessory to war crimes, regardless of orders or systemic context.

Selective Justice and Scapegoating

Rajapakse’s wife and a range of civil society actors assert that his prosecution (along with several other low-ranking soldiers) was used as evidence of accountability to the international community, while more senior military figures, some named by Rajapakse, were shielded from scrutiny or punishment. This accusation finds resonance in the documented practice, across several Sri Lankan mass grave cases, of scapegoating junior officers while insulating command structures.

Intimidation and Threats

It is a matter of public record, verified by Amnesty International and others, that Rajapakse and his family, as well as corroborating witnesses, were subjected to sustained threats, prison violence, and political intimidation aimed at silencing or discrediting their claims.

14. Rajapakse’s Ongoing Role: Recent Claims, Testimony, and Family Advocacy

Despite nearly three decades of imprisonment, Rajapakse has remained a figure of controversy and activism, primarily through the advocacy of his family, particularly his wife S.C. Wijewikrama.

Recent Developments

In 2025, S.C. Wijewikrama sent letters to the President of Sri Lanka, senior ministers, and the United Nations, stating that Rajapakse stands “ready to testify if an international investigation is launched,” reiterating his non-participation in the killings and his role as an unwilling subordinate obeying superior orders.
The family’s communications allege that multiple appeals for clemency or retrial have been repeatedly denied, and that only the pressure of international oversight might yield genuine accountability or relief for those scapegoated soldiers.

Calls for International Investigation

Rajapakse’s willingness to testify, if granted the protection of international monitors and legal guarantees, has been cited by advocates as a crucial, still-unrealized opportunity for uncovering further crimes, identifying additional perpetrators, and establishing a genuine historical record.

15. Legacy and Transitional Justice in Sri Lanka

The Chemmani case, by both its substance and its symbolic resonance, remains a litmus test for Sri Lankan and international efforts at transitional justice.

Institutional Mechanisms

Several government commissions (most notably the Office on Missing Persons, OMP) were established in the years since the war, but their effectiveness and independence have faced deep skepticism from victims’ groups, civil society, and foreign observers.

International Obligations

Sri Lanka is a state party to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICPPED) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), but has yet to implement effective procedures or achieve successful prosecutions under these frameworks.

The Demand for Transparency

Persistent calls for independent, victim-centred investigations, memorialization processes, and the consolidation of national investigations into the Chemmani (and other) mass graves have only grown as new evidence and more remains have come to light. International pressure and UN oversight are seen as essential by a spectrum of stakeholders.

16. Summary and Conclusions

The Chemmani mass graves case occupies a distinct place in Sri Lanka’s post-independence history. The singular importance of Somaratna Rajapakse’s testimony derives less from his personal character than from the window it opened into patterns of state-sanctioned disappearance, violence, and impunity during a critical period of the Armed Conflicts . His claims, now substantiated by at least two waves of exhumations yielding scores of skeletal remains, have proved both accurate and incomplete: accurate in pointing to a pattern of systematic, extrajudicial killings, incomplete because the full number of victims is still unknown and, most glaringly, the architects of these crimes remain unpunished.

The state’s halting, inconsistent, and often obstructive response was echoed in the experience of every major mass grave investigation in Sri Lanka; local and international civil society has repeatedly demanded, but seldom achieved, the full, transparent pursuit of truth and justice that is a precondition for reconciliation.

Rajapakse’s continuing willingness, through his family, to testify under international protection adds one final, unfulfilled opportunity to this story—a chance, if seized, to document more comprehensively the chain of command and institutional responsibility at the heart of Chemmani and Sri Lanka’s broader culture of impunity.

As of August 2025, Chemmani’s earth continues to yield its secrets. Whether those truths can become the foundation of justice and memory, or will remain contested, silenced, or reburied by political expediency, is a question for Sri Lanka’s future—and for the conscience of the world.

Table: Timeline of Key Chemmani Events and Rajapakse’s Statements

Date/Period	Event/Development	Rajapakse’s Statement/Role
7 Sept 1996	Abduction, rape, and murder of Krishanthi Kumaraswamy and family	Primary perpetrator; later confesses in court
July 1998	Death sentence pronounced after trial	In court: “We only buried the bodies sent by superiors… can show you where 300–400 bodies were buried in Chemmani.”
June 1999	Begins guiding exhumation at Chemmani from prison	Personally indicates burial sites, leads investigators to initial graves
June–Sept 1999	15 skeletons exhumed, 2 identified with missing persons	Insists more bodies/locations exist, names senior officers
1998–2006	Ongoing investigation and intermittent legal action	Writes and through family claims role limited to burial under orders; receives threats
2004	Supreme Court upholds convictions	Appeal dismissed; Rajapakse continues to claim innocence regarding murder
2025	New mass graves discovered; 147+ skeletons exhumed	Rajapakse’s wife: Ready to testify if international probe granted; reiterates innocence in killings, knowledge of further sites

Table Explanation: This table summarizes the sequence of major developments and directly connects them to public or reported statements and actions of Somaratna Rajapakse. As seen, his active involvement in the case, both as accused and witness, is a continuous thread linking the original tragedy to ongoing investigations nearly three decades later.

References

All citations throughout the report follow the form [n†Ln-Lm], referencing diverse and reputable sources, including human rights reports, news articles, legal documents, and expert analyses (full details are provided in the research context above). Key references include official statements, Amnesty International urgent actions, field reports on the Chemmani excavations, as well as up-to-date international media coverage as of August 2025.

References

1dbsjeyaraj.com

The Krishanthi Kumaraswamy Tragedy and the Chemmani Mass Graves ...

2www.amnesty.org

Sri Lanka: Chemmani exhumations -- positive first steps towards truth ...

3srilankabrief.org

Krishanthi Kumaraswamy case and Chemmani mass grave : A landmark case ...

4en.wikipedia.org

Somaratne Rajapakse - Wikipedia

5www.amnesty.org

9 June 1999 - Amnesty International

6ceylontoday.lk