Court orders security measures after discovery of human skeletal remains
A Jaffna Magistrate’s Court has ordered the appointment of five members from the cemetery development committee to oversee additional security measures at the Sindhubath cemetery in Ariyalai, Jaffna, following the discovery of human skeletal remains at the site.
The decision came during a case review hearing on Tuesday, presided over by Jaffna Magistrate A.A. Anandarajah. The session was attended by lawyers representing families of the disappeared, complainants, officials from the Nallur Divisional Secretariat, members of the cemetery development committee, and other relevant authorities.
During the hearing, lawyers stressed the urgent need for adequate police security at the cemetery, citing concerns about potential tampering with evidence and the need for a transparent investigation into the skeletal remains. They also requested that members of the cemetery development committee be allowed to oversee security arrangements, ensuring that the integrity of the site is maintained.
After considering these appeals, Magistrate Anandarajah granted permission for five members of the cemetery development committee to be involved in security oversight. The case has now been scheduled for further hearings, with additional investigations expected to follow.
The discovery of human skeletal remains in Jaffna raises significant concerns, given Sri Lanka’s long history of mass graves—particularly in the North-East, where enforced disappearances were systematically carried out by the Sri Lankan state and security forces.
One of the most infamous examples is the nearby Chemmani mass grave in Jaffna, which was uncovered in 1999 after a Sri Lankan soldier confessed that the bodies of hundreds of Tamils who were forcibly disappeared were buried there. The revelations about Chemmani followed the 1996 disappearances in Jaffna, when thousands of Tamil youths were abducted by Sri Lankan security forces after the military recaptured the Jaffna Peninsula.
Despite initial exhumations, the Sri Lankan government failed to conduct a thorough and credible investigation into the Chemmani graves, mirroring its repeated failures to ensure justice and accountability for mass atrocities committed against Tamils.
The latest discovery at the Sindhubath cemetery in Ariyalai only deepens suspicions that many more mass graves remain hidden across the Tamil homeland. Families of the disappeared, who have been relentlessly demanding truth and justice for over a decade, fear that without proper oversight, this latest evidence of state-perpetrated crimes could be covered up or destroyed—as has happened in past cases.
This development also comes just weeks after Sri Lanka rejected past UN resolutions during the 58th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva, where the government once again refused to investigate war crimes or hold perpetrators accountable.