Mass Grave Uncovered in Chemmani, Sri Lanka

In February this year, a land excavation was conducted on the outskirts of Chemmani in northern Sri Lanka to build a Hindu crematorium. Just below the soil that was dug up, excavators found remnants of human bones, leading to an official investigation by the Jaffna Magistrate Court.

The Chemmani discovery cannot be understood in isolation. It is rooted in the deep wounds of Sri Lanka’s protracted civil war, which itself was shaped by decades of ethnic tension between the Sinhalese majority and the Tamil minority. One of the most pivotal moments came in July 1983, when anti-Tamil pogroms — later known as Black July — erupted across the island after the killing of 13 Sri Lankan soldiers by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), led by Methagu Velupillai Prabhakaran (Methagu being an honorific meaning “respected leader” in Tamil). The LTTE described itself as a liberation movement fighting for an independent Tamil homeland in the north and east, while the Sri Lankan state — and later many foreign governments — designated it as a terrorist organisation.

Black July marked the escalation of the conflict into a full-scale war that lasted until 2009. Both the Sri Lankan armed forces and the LTTE were accused by human rights groups of committing war crimes and grave human rights violations. The state’s security forces became particularly notorious for enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, and mass detentions of Tamil civilians, especially in the northern Jaffna peninsula, where Chemmani is located. By the 1980s, Amnesty International estimated that approximately 60,000 to 100,000 people had been forcibly disappeared. By the end of the war in 2009, unofficial figures suggested that around 170,000 Tamils had lost their lives.

The site of Chemmani first drew national attention in 1998, when former Sri Lankan army Corporal Somaratne Rajapakse was found guilty of the rape and murder of Krishanthi Kumaraswamy, a Tamil schoolgirl. During his trial, he alleged that there was a site of mass graves in Chemmani containing bodies of men who had disappeared in 1996 after their arrest by the army. The subsequent investigation following his claim led to the discovery of 15 bodies; however, no further action was taken by the state.

Following the February 2025 discovery, a full-scale excavation was launched in mid-May, resulting in the unearthing of 19 skeletons, including infants. According to Raj Somadeva, the archaeologist leading the excavation, three of the bodies were “neonatal,” or babies younger than 10 months old, as reported in Al Jazeera. Authorities expect to determine the date and cause of death by analysing any material remains buried with the bodies, such as clothes or school bags.

People living in Chemmani and Jaffna remain sceptical of the state’s role in carrying out the investigation. They recall how mass graves in other northern regions such as Mannar, Kokkuthoduvai and Thiruketheeswaram were also discovered but their excavation was halted, amid allegations of cover-ups. Mannar, in particular, was the site of the largest mass grave ever excavated in Sri Lanka, containing 346 skeletal remains. Somadeva, who also supervised the Mannar site, told the press that he only received those remains for analysis “a week ago” — three years after he first submitted his request to access them.

The Chemmani site remains under investigation, with locals and relatives of the missing cooperating with authorities in the hope of identifying the remains. Speaking to The Hindu, Ponnambalam Arumugasamy, who has been searching for his missing brother since 1996, said: “I am looking for my brother, and so many women are looking for their sons or daughters. We have all endured enormous pain. We need answers."

Photo courtesy of The Independent.