One Year After United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk's Visit to the Chemmani Mass Grave Truth Continues to Emerge. Justice Continues to Be Denied.
It has been 28 years since the Chemmani Mass Grave first drew international attention in 1998, when a Sri Lankan soldier testified before the High Court that hundreds of forcibly disappeared Tamil people had been detained, killed, and secretly buried at the site by Sri Lankan security forces.
It has also been one year since United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk visited the Chemmani Mass Grave on June 25, 2025, following the discovery of human remains during construction work in February 2025 that led to renewed court supervised excavations.
While the excavation continues to uncover new evidence, the Tamil people's longstanding demands for the full truth, international accountability, and remedial justice remain unanswered.
Chemmani Mass Grave
The Chemmani Mass Grave is located on the outskirts of the historic city of Jaffna, in the Northern Province of the island of Sri Lanka, within the historical, traditional, and ancestral homeland of the Eelam Tamil people, known as Tamil Eelam. It is the largest mass grave uncovered in the island of Sri Lanka to date and stands as one of the clearest and most painful testaments to the Tamil Genocide committed by the Sri Lankan state against the Tamil people.
The international community first learned of the Chemmani Mass Grave in 1998 when a Sri Lankan soldier testified that hundreds of forcibly disappeared Tamil people had been secretly buried there after being detained and killed by Sri Lankan security forces. His testimony emerged during the trial concerning the rape and murder of Tamil schoolgirl Krishanthi Kumaraswamy, whose killing exposed a broader pattern of enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, and other genocidal acts committed against the Tamil people in the Jaffna peninsula. Although limited excavations recovered several human skeletons, the Sri Lankan state failed to carry out a full, credible, and independent investigation despite the soldier's testimony that hundreds of victims had been buried at the site. The full extent of the mass grave was never determined, and those responsible were never brought to justice.
For the Tamil people, the Chemmani Mass Grave became far more than a burial site. It became a symbol of the thousands who were forcibly disappeared during the Sri Lankan state's genocidal war against the Tamil people and of decades of denial, concealment, and state-sanctioned impunity.
The Chemmani Mass Grave is not an isolated case. It is the largest of numerous mass grave sites discovered across the Tamil homeland. Together, these sites form part of a broader pattern of genocidal acts committed against the Tamil people and underscore the urgent need for the full truth, international accountability, and remedial justice.
Twenty-eight years after the Chemmani Mass Grave first came to international attention, Tamil people continue to search for answers about their loved ones and all those who were forcibly disappeared. Yet, after nearly three decades, Chemmani is once again revealing the truth that remained buried for far too long.
One Year After the UN High Commissioner's Visit to the Chemmani Mass Grave
The discovery of human remains during construction work in February 2025 led to renewed court-supervised excavations beginning on 15 May 2025. Since then, investigators have uncovered an increasing number of skeletal remains, including those of children and infants, exposing the scale of the genocidal acts committed against the Tamil people at the site. To date, at least 412 sets of human remains have been recovered, making the Chemmani Mass Grave the largest mass grave uncovered in Sri Lanka.
Since the discovery of human remains, Tamil people and their supporters on the island of Sri Lanka and across the world have called for independent international oversight, independent international forensic experts, and international accountability for the Chemmani Mass Grave and other mass grave sites.
The visit by United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk on June 25, 2025, brought renewed international attention to the Chemmani Mass Grave. Despite this renewed attention and repeated calls from Tamil people, their supporters, and the international community, the current Sri Lankan government has failed to take meaningful steps to ensure that the excavation and all related investigations are conducted under independent international oversight and under the direction of independent international forensic experts, in accordance with international law and internationally accepted forensic standards.
Instead, it has continued to rely on domestic mechanisms, including the Office on Missing Persons (OMP) and the Office for National Unity and Reconciliation (ONUR), despite their consistent failure to deliver the full truth, meaningful accountability, or meaningful remedial justice for the Tamil Genocide.
This continued reliance on domestic mechanisms further reinforces the Tamil people's longstanding lack of confidence in successive Sri Lankan governments' willingness and ability to credibly investigate and ensure accountability for the genocide committed against the Tamil people by Sri Lankan state actors and institutions.
One year after the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights visited the Chemmani Mass Grave, there has been no meaningful progress toward uncovering the full truth, achieving international accountability, or delivering meaningful remedial justice.
Each set of human remains recovered, every personal belonging uncovered, and every new piece of forensic evidence further exposes the scale and systematic nature of the genocide committed against the Tamil people and reinforces the urgent need for the full truth, international accountability, and meaningful remedial justice.
The renewed excavation is far more than a forensic investigation. It is an opportunity to uncover the full truth, preserve critical evidence, and expose the full extent of the Tamil Genocide committed by the Sri Lankan state against the Tamil people.
The continuing discoveries at the Chemmani Mass Grave underscore the imperative that every suspected mass grave site across the Tamil homeland be investigated under independent international oversight and by independent international forensic experts, in accordance with international law and internationally accepted forensic standards. A comprehensive international investigation of these sites is essential to establish the full extent of the genocidal acts committed against the Tamil people and to advance truth, international accountability, and remedial justice.
The International Community Must Act
One year after United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk visited the Chemmani Mass Grave, and 28 years after the site first came to international attention, the international community must ensure that the truth emerging from Chemmani leads to the full truth, international accountability, and remedial justice.
The Chemmani Mass Grave continues to reveal critical evidence of the Tamil Genocide committed by the Sri Lankan state against the Tamil people. The Sri Lankan state cannot be entrusted with investigating and prosecuting the genocidal acts evidenced by the Chemmani Mass Grave and other mass grave sites. Its decades-long record of denial, concealment, ineffective investigations, failure to prosecute those responsible, and entrenched state-sanctioned impunity demonstrates that it lacks the willingness, independence, impartiality, and institutional credibility to investigate crimes committed by its own state institutions. This record makes a fully internationally-owned, credible, independent investigative and prosecutorial mechanism indispensable.
Therefore, the National Council of Canadian Tamils (NCCT) calls upon Canada and the international community to:
1.Ensure that the ongoing excavation and all forensic investigations at the Chemmani Mass Grave, and all investigations into suspected mass grave sites across the Tamil homeland, are conducted under independent international oversight and under the direction of independent international forensic experts, in accordance with international law and internationally accepted forensic standards, with independent international investigators and observers participating throughout the process.
2.Ensure the preservation, protection, documentation, secure retention, and independent international custody of all evidence recovered from the Chemmani Mass Grave for future international criminal investigations, prosecutions, and accountability processes.
3. Ensure the identification of victims to the fullest extent possible and the dignified return of their remains to their families, while respecting the rights and meaningful participation of victims' families throughout the process.
4. Establish a fully internationally-owned, credible, independent investigative and prosecutorial mechanism to investigate the genocidal acts evidenced at the Chemmani Mass Grave and other mass grave sites, identify those responsible, and prosecute them before competent international judicial mechanisms.
5. Deliver remedial justice for the Tamil Genocide and end the Sri Lankan state's decades-long policy of denial and entrenched state sanctioned impunity.
6. Recognize that sustainable peace, security, and stability cannot be achieved without the full truth, international accountability, remedial justice for the Tamil Genocide, and a permanent political solution based on the Eelam Tamil people's inalienable right to self-determination.
One year after the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights visited Chemmani, the excavation continues to uncover evidence that cannot be ignored. Twenty-eight years after Chemmani first came to international attention, the truth continues to emerge.
Evidence may remain buried for years, but the truth cannot remain buried forever.