Court urged to reject latest expert report on Sri Lanka’s largest mass grave

Tamil victims of enforced disappearances challenging an expert report on the findings at Sri Lanka’s largest recorded mass grave have appealed court to reject the ‘disputed conclusions’.

“Forensic Archaeological Excavation in Chemmani Jaffna” authored by archeologists Prof. Raj Somadeva and Anusha Wanninayake was submitted to Jaffna Magistrate on October 20.

“The assemblage of material evidence documented in this report is insufficient, in isolation, to support a definitive conclusion regarding the nature and character of the burials investigated,” says the 190 page summary report.

“Nevertheless, the artefacts and associated contextual evidence suggest that the site exhibits greater similarities to contexts characterized by formal burial practices than to clandestine burial sites documented in other parts of the world,” stress the archeologist duo underlining the bold text.

Two days later, Attorney at Law Kasthury Ahalankan filed a motion on behalf of aggrieved parties at the same court objecting to the ‘findings, observations, interpretations and conclusions contained in the said summary report, which totally fails to address material circumstances and available evidence’.

“The aggrieved parties object to any conclusion that ordinary burial has been established merely by inference without adequate examination of the physical evidence and the archaeological context,” says the nine page submission.

The controversy over a burial site already recognized by the judiciary as a crime scene has rekindled the longstanding Tamil demand for international involvement to probe mass atrocities allegedly committed by security forces.

Tamils in the war torn region strongly believe that the bodies of over 500 including infants and children recovered from the Chemmani mass grave are of victims of enforced disappearances.

When the Chemmani grave site was first uncovered in the mid-90s, Lance Corporal Somaratne Rajapaksa, the soldier who led authorities to it, admitted the bodies were of abducted or detained Tamils. Rajapaksa is in death row for the gang-rape and murder of Tamil schoolgirl Krishanthi Kumaraswamy, alongside the murders of her mother, brother, and a family friend. The bodies were found dumped in Chemmani. The soldier maintains that the hundreds of recovered bodies are of Tamils killed by the military. 

Body count: 574 or 583?

Following the accidental discovery of skeletal remains in February 2025, excavation work at the Chemmani Siththupaththi cemetery that commenced in May, continued until August 2026. The archeologists’ latest report says 574 minimum number of individual human skeletons were excavated during approximately 80 days of excavation.

However, earlier accounts made available to journalists at the site records the number of bodies recovered during 110 days of excavations in three phases as 583. Artifacts found among the dead include feeding bottles, satchels, dolls, coins and raincoats. The Jaffna magistrate, excavation teams including archaeologists, and judicial medical officers as well as lawyers and representatives of the Office of the Missing Persons (OMP) were present when the findings were first disclosed.

Departing from Prof. Somadeva’s three earlier reports, the latest fails to identify the site as a mass grave, which the victims describe as a ‘deliberate omission’.

Changed terminology 

“Professor Raj Somadeva has deliberately omitted the term ‘Mass Grave’ from this interim report, whereas he has used the same terminology in all three of his previous reports. This omission raises serious doubts about the accuracy and validity of the interim report,” says the challenging motion.

Two earlier reports submitted to court and the UN among other international bodies had identified the site as a mass grave.

“In September 2025, the HRCSL published its fact-finding report into the Chemmani Mass Grave Site investigation and issued recommendations to ensure a credible, transparent, and scientifically guided process in line with international human rights standards,” said the UN.

“At the Chemmani site, the absence of consistent body orientation, lack of associated grave goods, and the apparent disregard for formal burial conventions collectively suggest that the interments were not intended to honor the deceased in a culturally meaningful way. Rather, the burial morphology supports the hypothesis that these individuals were disposed of hastily, and possibly under coercive or violent circumstances, aligning with known characteristics of mass graves associated with human rights violations,” said Prof. Somadeva in mid-2025.

His new reports suggesting the burials follow either an epidemic or natural catastrophe is heavily contested by the aggrieved party.

The summary report says, “If the concentration of burials resulted from an epidemic or another form of natural catastrophe, a limited assemblage of associated material culture would not necessarily be unexpected. Under such circumstances, the primary concern may have been the rapid disposal of the deceased rather than the deposition of substantial material offerings or personal belongings.”

However, the same report refers to ‘several amulets’ and ‘a substantial number of Sri Lankan coins’ as, artefacts ‘associated with ritual practices’ although ‘their precise functions cannot be established solely based on their archaeological contexts’.

The victims contend that the archaeologist report lacks sufficient evidence supporting an epidemic or natural catastrophe.

“The aggrieved parties specifically dispute any proposition that the skeletal remains may be explained by an epidemic, natural catastrophe or other non-criminal event as suggested in the said report, unless such a conclusion is supported by identifiable and verifiable scientific evidence,” says lawyer Kasthury Ahalankan in his submission.

Following a fact finding visit to the Chemmani mass grave in August 2025, the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) ruled out customary burials by Hindu adherents.

LCpl. Somaratna Rajapaksa

It added, “there is a reasonable likelihood that the burials were unlawful and pursuant to extrajudicial killings”.

Responding to the controversy surrounding the Somadeva - Wanninayake report, soldier Somaratne Rajapaksa has reportedly renewed his claim that the hundreds of bodies unearthed from the Chemmani grave site belongs to those killed by the Sri Lanka military deployed in the north in 1996.

“I have also stated that bodies were buried near the cemetery area and surrounding Chemmani. Therefore, the bodies being found currently in the cemetery area could indeed be the bodies of those massacred by the military," Lance Corporal Rajapaksa has told Tamil newspaper Virakesari.

The mainstream Colombo based newspaper claims the statement came through the death row prisoners sister.

“When explicitly asked, ‘Do you firmly believe that over 500 human skeletons recently discovered through excavations belong to those killed by the military in the Chemmani area?’, Somaratne Rajapaksa responded, ‘Yes,” says Virakesari.

Strangely, the Jaffna magisterial inquiry into the finding of hundreds of bodies in Chemmani doesn’t seem to have access to the earlier court documents.

“The report of the investigations and proceedings conducted in relation to the 1999 mass grave does not appear to have been made available to the magistrate in relation to the 2025 grave. It appears the records may be lost or missing,” said the UN human rights chief’s office in July 2025.

After receiving the archaeologists report, Jaffna Magistrate Selvanayagam Leninkumar granted the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) permission to record a fresh statement from Lance Corporal Somaratne in relation to the Chemmani mass grave.

Tamil victims who have been sceptical over justice from local mechanisms have sought out court assistance to seek redress beyond the islands waters.

“Consider whether an independent international expert review or further forensic archaeological examination is necessary to resolve the material issues arising from the report,” says the appeal submitted by Lawyer Ahalankan challenging the expert report.

Sri Lanka has ruled out international intervention in its accountability process, maintaining that the government has provided funds and judicial independence to the Chemmani investigations.

© JDS