Mass graves have been one of the tragic legacies of the country’s violent past over the past 40-odd years—from the southern insurrections of 1971 and 1987-89 to the northern separatist insurrection. Tens of thousands of men and women, both young and old, as well as children, became victims of the violence and simply disappeared. Time and again, however, evidence of their grisly fate comes to the surface with the discovery of a mass grave. Each discovery throws up uncomfortable truths that Sri Lankan society must grapple with if it is to heal the still festering wounds of the past and is further evidence of the victims’ long wait for justice.
The issue of mass graves is one that makes every government uncomfortable, but justice demands that they not be ignored. The ruling National People’s Power (NPP) government has insisted it will ensure justice for all victims of enforced disappearances—both in the North and the South. It also granted UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk unrestricted access to the Chemmani mass grave site during his official visit to the country last month.
Chemmani is not the only mass grave to have been discovered in recent years. Excavations at the Mannar Sathosa mass grave site and the mass grave site discovered at Kokkuthoduvai in Mullaitivu are still ongoing.
Ongoing excavations at Chemmani and other mass grave sites have again shined an unwelcome spotlight on Sri Lanka at a critical time for the country. While the mass graves and the country’s human rights situation at large are unlikely to have an impact on ongoing tariff negotiations with the United States (US), there is no doubt that, with each new discovery at Chemmani, pressure will only mount on the Sri Lankan government—from countries that have a minority Tamil diaspora with voting rights in their adopted homes, largely limited to Canada and Britain, though—to move forward with a mechanism to ensure accountability.
Excavations at Chemmani to resume tomorrow
At the Siththupathi Hindu cemetery mass grave site in Chemmani, the ongoing excavation activi-ties will resume tomorrow following directives issued by the Jaffna Magistrate.
When the case was taken up for hearing before Magistrate A.A. Aanandaraja on Tuesday, Judicial Medical Officer (JMO) Dr. Piranavan Sellaiyah and archaeologist Prof. Raj Somadeva submitted their preliminary reports to the court, detailing the nature of the mass grave site and their observations.
Last week, the excavation team began its work on an adjacent area in the premises when it came to light more bodies could’ve been buried. The site was marked in court documents as ‘Site 2′.
The court was told that so far 65 full sets of human skeletons have been recovered from the site, with 63 remains from Site 1 and two more from the newly identified Site 2.
The JMO told the court that one set of human remains excavated along with a suspected blue school bag (presumably distributed by UNICEF during wartime) belonged to a child. Some children’s toys were also recovered near the remains as well.
In his report based on the earlier court order issued calling for a report on this particular discovery marked as ‘S-25,’ Dr. Piranavan suggested that the skeleton could belong to a child aged 3-4.
The JMO also pointed out there are similarities of human remains with other sets marked as ‘S-48′ and ‘S-56,’ suspected to belong to minors, compared to the skeleton structure and dresses that were recovered from the site. The court directed him to submit a comprehensive report after further investigations on the matter.
The court also imposed some restrictions on accessing the site for both media and lawyers repre-senting affected communities, considering recent worrisome interpretations that emerged in social media, including the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
In the preliminary report submitted by Prof. Somadeva, it was pointed out that, based on forensic evidence collected from the site and the order of the bodies buried, the site was a crime scene.
It was brought to the attention of the court that certain images that were taken at the site went viral on social media with different interpretations and twists by socalled social media influencers and digital content creators.
Stressing that this is a crime scene under judicial purview, the court directed that two lawyers from the Jaffna Bar be allowed to monitor the excavation activities on a roster basis in the morning and evening, with media and relevant experts only being allowed to take photographs at the site.
The case is to be taken up for hearing on August 6.