Buried Tales of Past Violence from Chemmani

Chemmani is Sri Lanka's collective shame and evidence of systemic failure to deal with extra-judicial killings and deliver truth, justice and accountability

- DILRUKSHI HANDUNNETTI

A quaint village in northern Jaffna is currently throwing up evidence of Sri Lanka's gross human rights abuses and poor criminal justice system, buried in the sands of time, holding within its tombs inconvenient truths the island has long preferred to keep buried.

The world watches Sri Lanka with keen eyes as evidence of a mass grave re-emerges from Chemmani, in the Tamil heartland of Jaffna. It has refused to stay buried, a quarter century later.

Chemmani is among the known mass graves, and a 26-year-long war is most likely to have birthed other sites, still unknown and unidentified. Bearing war's painful legacy, these mass graves quietly hold the evidence of people killed and buried during years of conflict, a stark reminder of an island's gruesome past, human rights violations and the absence of justice and accountability.

In February 2025, construction workers unearthed human remains while clearing a land adjacent to the Chemmani-Sindupathi Hindu burial ground. Following a police referral, the Jaffna Magistrate Court initiated a preliminary investigation on February 20 and ordered exhumation and excavation of the remains.

On June 2, an expert team led by Prof Raj Somadeva, a top forensic archaeologist, unearthed 19 skeletal remains. As of July 5, ongoing excavations have recovered 45 skeletons, including those of children, all temporarily stored at the University of Jaffna.

Like most mass graves, until 1998, Chemmani was unknown to the world and was shrouded in mystery. It was first mentioned by Lance Corporal Somaratne Rajapakse, one of those accused for the rape and murder of an 18-year-old Tamil school girl, Krishanthi Kumaraswamy.