Mass graves and extrajudicial killings in Sri Lanka – Southasia Weekly #73

This week in Himal

This week, Jason Stanley reflects that India’s fascist turn under Hindu nationalist rule has multiple parallels with global fascist tactics and history, including in Nazi Germany and Trump’s United States, drawing on his books on fascism, How Fascism Works and Erasing History. 

Lawyer and legal scholar Shahrukh Alam talks about how India’s laws are being weaponised against Muslims in episode 5 of our podcast series ‘Partitions of the Heart: Conversations with Harsh Mander.’ 

For the next episode of the State of Southasia podcast, host Nayantara Narayanan speaks with Samina Luthfa, a sociology professor at the University of Dhaka with a focus on labour rights and gender, about Bangladesh’s feminist movement and how the country’s turbulent politics is affecting women. 

This week, we're also excited to introduce a new segment we're calling Snap Southasia, featuring a striking image from the region each week. Scroll down to take our poll and guess where in Southasia this week's photo was taken!

This week in Southasia

Chemmani mass grave re-opens discussions on extra-judicial killings, disappearances in Sri Lanka

Over the past week, excavations have been ongoing at the Chemmani mass grave in Jaffna, with 33 bodies discovered so far. Among the effects recovered were child’s toys and schoolbags, indicating that children were also buried there, with archaeologists saying some of the bodies were babies younger than 10 months old. On 25 June, families of the disappeared launched a mass protest in Jaffna calling for UN monitoring of the process, coinciding with UN Human Rights Chief Volker Turk’s visit to Sri Lanka.

The excavations have reopened conversations around accountability for enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings during Sri Lanka’s decade-long civil war. Chemmani was also the site of the rape and murder of 18-year old Krishanthi Kumaraswamy and her family, with a soldier detained in connection with the case later testifying that hundreds had been buried in mass graves near Chemmani. Chemmani is one of at least 20 mass grave sites where excavations have taken place across Sri Lanka, with research finding that forensic investigations have been marred by political interference, delays and a lack of transparency, and hampered by a lack of resources. While the election of new president Anura Kumara Dissanayake raised hopes for some progress, families of the disappeared have expressed scepticism that there will be meaningful answers for them, reflected in calls for international participation and monitoring of the excavation process. 

Given renewed discussions about accountability in Sri Lanka, our State of Southasia podcast interview with human rights lawyer and head of International Truth and Justice Project Yasmin Sooka is worth a listen. Sooka talks about President Dissanayake’s promise to set up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the need for further reforms to ensure accountability. “Statements need to be matched with actions,” Sooka said. Other articles to re-read include Bhavani Fonseka's article from August 2020 about the failures of Sri Lanka's criminal justice system. Letchumanan Thevathiran’s article about Dharmaretnam Sivaram’s case is also worth revisiting. 

From the archive (February 2025)