In Sri Lanka, an old ethnic wound has been torn open with the release of the third interim forensic archaeological report on the Chemmani mass gravesite in northern Jaffna. The report, submitted to the Jaffna Magistrate on October 19, was authored by archaeologists Raj Somadeva and Anusha Wanninayake. It has since thrown everyone off balance, sparked controversy that could drive a deep wedge between communities, and triggered competing narratives.
The report noted that the site shared characteristics with formal burial contexts rather than clandestine mass graves, raising the possibility that the high concentration of remains—particularly children and infants—could relate to historical epidemics or natural disasters and avoided the reference to a “mass grave”.
The report’s summary states: “The assemblage of material evidence documented in this report is insufficient, in isolation, to support a definitive conclusion regarding the nature and character of the burials investigated,” adding: “Nevertheless, the artefacts and associated contextual evidence suggest that the site exhibits greater similarities to contexts characterised by formal burial practices than to clandestine burial sites documented in other parts of the world.”
The report's suggestion that the site could be an ordinary burial ground or the result of a historical epidemic has sparked immense backlash, with rights organisations, legal representatives and families of the disappeared pointing to the gravesite's proximity to a former wartime military checkpoint and rejecting its contents. They highlight plastic toys, a UN school bag and highly unusual placements—such as multiple instances of an adult skeletal frame positioned as if carrying a child—to argue that these do not match a conventional cemetery.
The excavations were not planned. Instead, it was a reaction to the accidental emergence of potential evidence of a wartime graveyard.
In February 2025, local labourers expanding a Hindu cemetery in Ariyalai in Chemmani accidentally struck human bones while digging a foundation for a new crematorium. The workers informed the local authority in Nallur, and the Jaffna magistrate ordered excavations and 24-hour police security for the site. Forensic archaeologist Prof Raj Somadeva and team have, after 110 days of excavations, exhumed over 570 skeletal remains. An estimated 41 percent of the deceased are children and 22 percent are infants. More than 90 percent had no clothing attached.
Following the “accidental discovery” of the potential mass graveyard linked to Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict—also the country’s largest—the national Human Rights Commission released a report based on an August 2025 fact-finding mission to Chemmani and averred the “reasonable likelihood that the burials were unlawful and pursuant to extrajudicial killings”, and recommended setting up a new independent institution for the investigation and prosecution of serious crimes. The Commission observed major gaps in the expertise and technology available for the probe and recommended seeking relevant expertise and technological facilities, including from overseas, to ensure a credible and independent analysis of DNA samples gathered from the skeletal remains found in Chemmani.
Much earlier, the Office on Missing Persons acknowledged critical gaps, including a shortage of forensic anthropologists and geneticists, the absence of centralised DNA databases, inadequate laboratories and reliance on archaeologists rather than mass grave specialists.
Sri Lanka has experienced various epidemics, and evidence points to major health crises in the ’60s and ’70s, including records from Jaffna. There is no denying that. The site has also served as a cemetery for decades. It is also an established fact, a confession by former lance corporal Somaratna Rajapakse, that about 300-400 military killings resulted in the limited excavation in 1999 that exhumed 15 human skeletons, with no follow-up thereafter.
Rajapaksa, convicted with four others of abduction, gangrape and murder of Krishanthi Kumaraswamy, an 18-year-old schoolgirl from Jaffna and her mother, brother and a family-friend, was the person who led authorities to it and admitted the bodies were of abducted or detained Tamils and dumped in Chemmani.
Twenty-seven years later, for the families and local activists, the interim report is nothing short of betrayal and a refusal to acknowledge a past soaked in blood. They say that they kept faith with the process and waited patiently to unearth truth and an acknowledgement of atrocities. “We have been let down yet again. We followed the process with interest, wanting truth and justice. The world knows of the occurrence of extrajudicial killings and the remains of the dead are scattered throughout the region,” said a mother of a disappeared youth. “This is denial, avoidance of accountability and refusing to acknowledge our collective loss and grief”, she said.
Despite renewed strong calls for an independent international mechanism to probe the mass graves, the government wishes to continue with a domestic mechanism. However, it will be in everyone's best interests to engage reputed international forensic experts, which could increase the credibility of a process now opposed by aggrieved parties as an attempt to negate wartime excesses and avoid accountability. As one affected family member said, “It refuses to acknowledge the recent past, what we lost.”
To them, it is an attempt to erase a brutal phase during violent conflict and the avoidance of wartime atrocities.
Despite the current controversy, Chemmani can mark either a turning point towards justice and accountability or evidence of institutional failure. It can lead to recognition of collective grief and the need for justice and closure.
Today, Tamils are renewing an old demand for direct international involvement, a loud indictment of the mechanisms in place. Ultimately, the excavations aim to establish the truth in the hope of delivering justice.
Chemmani has remained controversial for decades, its past refusing to be buried and continuing to demand answers. Every effort must be made to ensure a scientifically sound, transparent and accountable excavation process that builds public trust, particularly among those who lost loved ones during the protracted war and need closure to heal and move forward. For that to happen, the country needs truth—and justice. Any mechanism that deviates from this path will not only face challenges but also risk deepening divisions among people who deserve the opportunity to move forward.
Dilrukshi Handunnetti | Award-winning journalist and lawyer; founder and director of Colombo-based Center for Investigative Reporting
(Views are personal)
(dilrukshi@cir.lk)