More mass graves at Chemmani and Sri Lanka’s old failures of justice

IN FEBRUARY this year, I could hardly believe it when I heard that more bodies had been discovered during construction work near Chemmani, in Jaffna district in Sri Lanka’s North. Observing exhumations there in 1999 on behalf of Amnesty International had been one of the most searing experiences of my working life. Even now, a quarter of a century later, I often think back to that time – to the families of the disappeared present there, clinging to hopes for truth, justice and reparations, only to have them cruelly denied by the administrations in power then and since.

The current probe, which began in May 2025 after construction workers preparing to build a Hindu crematorium stumbled upon human bones, is a stark reminder of Sri Lanka’s unresolved past. The Jaffna Magistrate Court promptly ordered excavation and further investigation. Found in Sri Lanka’s former war zone, the mass graves have brought the country’s troubled history back into focus 16 years after the civil war ended. For the country’s Tamils, who have long demanded accountability for war crimes, atrocities and human-rights violations, the site has renewed apprehensions over the real prospects for justice.