Sri Lanka’s mass grave investigation brings back painful memories of civil war

Forensic teams excavating a mass grave in northern Sri Lanka have uncovered 582 human skeletons, including the remains of infants and young children, in what has become one of the largest such sites discovered in the country since the end of its 26-year civil war in 2009.

Excavators have also recovered personal belongings from the site at Chemmani, near the northern city of Jaffna, as Indian news outlets reported. Among the items discovered were plastic milk bottles, children’s toys, small school bags, shoes and bangles.

Forensic experts working at the site said several skeletons showed signs consistent with executions. One skeleton was found with both hands tightly bound against the chest.

The Chemmani site has become the focus of Sri Lanka’s largest investigation into a mass grave.

The location has long been associated with allegations of forced disappearances and extrajudicial killings during the country’s decades-long armed conflict between government security forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Forensic specialists will need to examine the remains in detail, while DNA samples will have to be compared with those of surviving relatives before any identities can be confirmed.

It remains unclear whether any of the 582 people whose remains have been recovered are among those officially recorded as missing in Sri Lanka.

Human rights organisations and families of people who disappeared during the conflict have renewed calls for an international investigation.

They argue that previous investigations into mass graves in Sri Lanka failed to identify victims or hold those responsible for their deaths accountable.

Legacy of Sri Lanka’s civil war

The LTTE, also known as the Tamil Tigers, emerged amid longstanding ethnic tensions and fought for an independent homeland for Tamils in northern and eastern Sri Lanka.

Both the Sri Lankan military and the LTTE have faced allegations of serious human rights violations, including abductions, killings, rape and other abuses. The civil war began in 1983 and ended in May 2009 after government forces defeated the LTTE. 

The conflict is estimated to have killed around 100,000 people and left tens of thousands missing, many of them members of Sri Lanka’s ethnic Tamil minority.

The scale of the Chemmani discovery could therefore have significant implications for efforts to establish the fate of people who disappeared during the conflict.

Sri Lanka’s government has argued that the Chemmani investigation is independent and should continue to be handled by the country’s own institutions.

Justice Minister Harshana Nanayakkara rejected allegations that government bodies had failed Tamil families and urged the public to judge the institutions by their current conduct.

“I'm appealing to everyone. Don't measure these organisations by their past records, but measure them by the way they work under our government,” he said.

By Nazrin Sadigova