In 1995, after a bloody conflict, the Sri Lankan army wrested control of the Jaffna Peninsula from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). It was seen as a key turning point in the war, which ended with the defeat of the Tigers in 2009.
As they extended control in the late 1990s, the entire Chemmani region became part of a high-security zone and was dotted with army camps, check points and security posts. There was an army camp in Chemmani close to the cemetery as well.
Some at that time described the Jaffna region as an “open prison” – and the security forces were accused of causing the disappearance of thousands of civilians, something Sri Lankan governments have always denied.
“I was 12 years old when my father was picked up by the Sri Lankan army at a checkpoint close to Chemmani area in September 1996. We still don’t know what happened to him,” Jeyaruby Jayapalan, who now lives in Jaffna, tells the BBC.
She recalls how, after learning of his disappearance, the family panicked and visited military camps and police stations across Jaffna in a desperate search for information without any luck. He never came back.
Her father, Kandaiah Jayapalan, was a government employee who also ran a roadside café not far from Chemmani.
“I went to Chemmani mass grave with many others hoping that I will find some answers. But we didn’t find any material evidence. We want a detailed forensic analysis of the human remains,” says Jeyaruby.
Two weeks before Kandaiah Jayapalan vanished, an 18-year-old Tamil school girl, Krishanthi Kumaraswamy, disappeared in the same area.
In 1998, a court in Colombo sentenced five soldiers to death for the rape and murder of Kumaraswamy and for killing three of her family members. The case drew global attention at that time. Their bodies were later found buried in Chemmani area.
It is among the most infamous cases from the conflict – and the grave currently under investigation is within 100 metres of the remains of Kumaraswamy and others were found.
In a startling court testimony, one of the convicted soldiers, Somaratne Rajapakse, alleged that between 300 and 400 people who had been killed in the mid-1990s were buried in Chemmani.
His claim led to the first excavation at Chemmani a year later, during which investigators unearthed more than 10 human skeletons. Human rights activists believed those remains were linked to people who had disappeared during the civil war, but there was little judicial follow-up.
Activists say that because the war with the Tamil rebels was ongoing, the then government didn’t pursue the investigation and did not explain why.
The discovery of another mass grave in the same area has revived calls for accountability.
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