By C.V. Wigneswaran –
Justice C.V. Wigneswaran MP
Someone asked me; Do you think Evidence collection should be handled under international supervision in the Chemmani mass grave exhumation?
My answer was; Yes, the exhumation of a mass grave in Chemmani has shocked the conscience of those who care about human rights and the plight of innocent Tamil people during the war.
In July, 1998, Lance Corporal Somaratne Rajapaksa was tried and sentenced for his involvement in the rape and murder of Tamil schoolgirl Krishanthi Kumaraswamy, together with the murders of four others who came to find her. During his trial, Rajapaksa revealed his involvement in the burials of approximately four hundred victims in a mass grave near Chemmani.
During the 6th day of the second phase of the Chemmani mass grave exhumation, which took place on Sunday, several more skeletons, including those of children, were discovered. One was clearly buried with a distinctive blue schoolbag, of the kind distributed by UNICEF and a doll.
Thus far, 33 skeletons have been found in the excavation. However, all of these have been taken and kept under the custody of the Government Judicial Medical Officer. Due to this, human rights activists have expressed concerns about the possibility of evidence tampering and destruction of these skeletons. Thus, it is crucial to pay immediate attention to the chain of custody because clear documentation of who handled the remains from excavation to the laboratory is essential. Otherwise, the forensic results will be legally weakened.
The International community must insist that the Government of Sri Lanka take steps to preserve the skeletons excavated under international supervision. Independent forensic teams or international experts, not the Sri Lankan government should handle evidence collection and analysis.
As per the UN Resolution 46/1, adopted in 2021, the international community has the mandate to collect, consolidate, analyse, and preserve information and evidence related to alleged human rights violations and crimes in Sri Lanka. It is time for the UN to follow through on the mandate it holds.
Since, Rajapaksa’s testimony in 1998, which was reported by many news outlets and human rights NGOs, the World has known that a mass grave exists at Chemmani. Yet, only now is it being excavated. And even now, the evidence risks being destroyed.
Thanks in part to the UN’s inaction, the victims have gone without justice until now. Today, the UN Office in Sri Lanka must ensure that all evidence collected from the grave site is properly collected, consolidated, analysed, and preserved within the mandate of Resolution 46/1.
As a co-sponsor of UN Human Rights Council Resolution 46/1 and a country with a historic responsibility to justice and reconciliation in Sri Lanka, the United Kingdom must take the lead on this issue.
An international investigation must now be opened to ensure that the perpetrators of the Chemmani massacre, and others like it, are identified, tried, and brought to justice. This is also the responsibility for the international community, as embodied in the UN Office in Sri Lanka.
The Tamil people should not be silent. They should not rest until every avenue for justice has been fulfilled.
*Justice C.V.Wigneswaran, Retired Judge of the Supreme Court, Ex Member of Parliament,Former Chief Minister of Northern Province and Secretary General, Thamizh Makkal Kootani
Nathan / July 5, 2025
Justice Wigneswaran, You are just making noise. In your capacity as the Chief Minister, what did you do to unmask the horror?
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Dinuk / July 5, 2025
Yes it is all noise, and Disinformation to confuse, distract, divide Sri Lanka but in.Palestine now the Western mask of Human Rights and liberal democratic bullshit has fallen off..
How come that just in time for the UNHRC dude’s visit a mass grave was unearthed– over a decade after the war ended???!
Get a life old man and some sense, and stop digging up the Beggars Wound of “Ethnic Conflict”.
The UN is a corrupt organization and huge part of the problem of Disinformation. The corrupt clown Antonio Guterrez who has failed to do anything for world peace should have been forced to resigned long ago!
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nimal fernando / July 6, 2025
The Chemmani Mass Grave ……. is not a Tamil issue: It’s a Sri Lankan national issue …… a crime committed against citizens of Sri Lanka.
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Why is the victory over the LTTE celebrated with such great fanfare ………. and not the victory over the JVP?
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We have a great distance to travel as a nation.
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Intellect can help more than emotions.
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The only way …………..
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nimal fernando / July 7, 2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x946XDXe8tM
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SJ / July 6, 2025
N
True that the man has done nothing on many matters
But this was something that came up well before his time as CM NPC, and effectively forgotten by the time he was elected.
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Justice1 / July 5, 2025
The politicians DID NOT do a root cause analysis as to the uprising in the south and north at all since independence. It is because the constitution does NOT give equal rights for ALL irrespective of cast creed and race. These are not enforced as the judiciary too is weak to enforce the law to the letter as the judiciary is under the thumb of the politicians. Unless and until full separation of powers of the judiciary and executive is there, this country will not move forward an inch and cannot ensure such unfortunate uprisings will occur again. First of all citizens should be addressed as Sri Lankans (not Sinhala, Tamil or Muslim etc) and all political parties with racial and religious affiliations should be BANNED to begin with. New genuine players should be able to join the political landscape as currently they are not even given proper recognition by the MSM and BLOCKED by the main political parties in collusion with the Election Commission.
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SJ / July 5, 2025
J1
How can a root cause analyse itself?
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Jaffna Man / July 5, 2025
I fully agree, all the more because the Sinhalese people have always objected to neutral examination of war crimes and making the fictitious case that their prosecution and cannot be entrusted to outsiders, nor an investigation.
In fact I know the first digging was botched with an AG official anxiously phoning his bosses in Colombo a live commentary probably to urge counter measures quickly to suppress negative outcomes from the digging.
Now suddenly on 3 July there is a nearly 4000 word article by a former AG prosecutor Prashanthi Mahindararatne on what good results were obtained when suspects were examined when military personnel were successfully interviewed by fellow military officers who believed they were THEIR PEOPLE
Hogwash! Why did the Daily Mirror after nearly 30 years at this time PLANT this nearly 4000 word article when they rarely allow over 1500 words? It is the same obnoxious newspaper that carried a bar association condemnation of the UNSG Darusman report even before it was released, based presumably on a copy from GoSL.
The case is made by the rightist “Uncle Nephew Party” newspaper to help out the rightist sections of the government to avoid foreigners inquiring
Please do not be fooled.
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SJ / July 5, 2025
JM
It came up under the presidency of CBK, whom I believe you were full of trust at the time.
Have you ever said a word critical of her role in the cover-up?
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Jaffna Man / July 6, 2025
I have.
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SJ / July 6, 2025
Some details if possible?
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Jaffna Man / July 6, 2025
Do your homework before making assertions.
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SJ / July 7, 2025
I only asked a question. If answering will be embarrassing, let us leave it at that.
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Justice1 / July 5, 2025
There would have been mass graves created by the LTTE as well as as they forcibly recruited children and killed many of their own who did not agree with them with their heinous activities. The writer is no “angel” as well as he has one foot in the south with all the comforts! Also this is a futile exercise after more than forty years. It appears there is a hidden agenda here.
Sri Lankans must now move forward by burying the hatchet and call themselves Sri Lankans irrespective of threir caste, race and creed.
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SJ / July 5, 2025
J1
Is it not equally if not more likely that since children were recruited by the LTTE, they could have been targets of attack by soldiers on suspicion?
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Ajith / July 5, 2025
“There would have been mass graves created by the LTTE as well as as they forcibly recruited children and killed many of their own who did not agree with them with their heinous activities. “
Have you ever found Sinhalese mass graves created by the LTTE?
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Ajith / July 5, 2025
“Sri Lankans must now move forward by burying the hatchet and call themselves Sri Lankans irrespective of their caste, race and creed.. “
Why it is now? What is the guarantee that you will not burn Jaffna library again?
What happened to those murdered and those who buried families together?
What happened to those children who were handed over by parents after 2009?
Why did you not include Religion or language in your list? When you say Sri Lankan it only for Buddhists?
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SJ / July 5, 2025
The hatchet carrier has got into full swing!
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Rohan25 / July 5, 2025
Thank you, C.V. Wigneswaran, for boldly stating the truth; however, many hypocrites, here, whilst howling, crying and beating their chests about what is happening currently in Gaza, Palestine, and Ukraine, demanding justice, reparation and the people who committed all these war crimes tried before an international court, as it does not affect them and makes them feel very good, remain silent, deny, trivialise, justify and condone all the war crimes and structural genocide that was largely committed by the Sinhalese Sri Lankan state, armed forces, police and even many civilians on the island’s Tamils. aided and abetted by the vast majority of the Sinhalese population and the Buddhist clergy/establishment. They want the Tamils to meekly accept what happened to them, forget and move forward, thankfully accepting a few crumbs grudgingly thrown to them from the Sinhalese table, due to international pressure and accept their second-rate status in their homeland and that they are ultimately a doomed people, to be eternally under the yoke of a racist Sinhalese Buddhist majority, until they ultimately destroy them as a people and steal, their lands, history and heritage for Sinhalese Buddhism.
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Rohan25 / July 5, 2025
If any Tamil dares to challenge this, wants justice, redressing, accountability and equal rights, under a federal system, lots of these hypocrites shed crocodile tears about Palestine, wanting the same thing for Palestinians, start ganging up like a pack of hyenas and start to howl and aggressively attack, nip and abuse the Tamil blogger, calling them racist bigots, for daring to question the status quo and demand answers, justice and accountability. They hypocritically cry and denounce injustice in the rest of the world as this does not affect them, they do not benefit and it makes them, looks but do not want this back home, as they are the beneficiaries of this Sinhalese state sponsored structural genocide and war crimes against the island’s Tamils, that gradually started from the time of independence, with the ultimate aim of destroying them as a people. Charity begins at home.
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Rohan25 / July 5, 2025
This is like the cross dressing Cardinal who called the Tamils traitors for demanding an international inquiry into the May 2009 War crimes, where around 70000 innocent Tamils civilians, were deliberately targetted and killed, by the Sri Lankan state, on the pretext of fighting with the LTTE, many of whom were Catholics too, but he did not care as they were all Tamils. However, now dancing up and down and wanting an international inquiry, as around 150 Sinhalese-speaking Catholics were deliberately killed by alleged Islamic extremists during the 2019 Easter bombing. One rule for the Sinhalese and another for the Tamils. So is the largely JVP-led NPP government, which makes human rights demands for themselves and what happened to them and for the Sinhalese, but supported the war against the island’s Tamils and all the crimes committed against them and now wants to shut down all the international war crimes inquiries and demands for justice.
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Dinuk / July 5, 2025
Oh please old man let it rest! A new post-ethnic younger generation in Lanka wants to move on!
Also, How come that just in time for the UNHRC dude’s visit a mass grave was unearthed– over a decade after the war ended???! Get a life old man and some sense, and stop digging up the Beggars Wound of fake “Ethnic Conflict”.
By now we all know that the so-called ‘ethnic conflict’ was a Cold War Proxy War with India’s RAW backing the LTTE and Israel’s Mossad, CIA and British MI6 training the SL forces to commit War Crimes during the Cold War Years. Learn some history dude.
Sinhalas and Tamil speaking peoples had lived together for centuries in Sri Lanka and intermarried for generations. It was the British Imperialists who Racialized linguistic/ cultural differences and invented the Ethnic Conflict Research Industry.
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Jaffna Man / July 5, 2025
“Old man” as an insult is unacceptable hate speech. You will also be one, one day.
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SJ / July 5, 2025
Old yes, senile not necessarily.
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old codger / July 5, 2025
Dinuk aka DRS,
“How come that just in time for the UNHRC dude’s visit a mass grave was unearthed– over a decade after the war ended???”
What a question! Perhaps you were not yet born when Somaratna was sentenced in 1998? Were you sleeping when succeeding governments brushed investigations under the carpet? Where were you when Ministers claimed there were only 4 bodies in the grave?
Would your opinion be different if a couple of your relatives were found in it?
It is okay to be an uninformed jackass if one wishes, but show some empathy for at least the children found slaughtered in the grave.
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SJ / July 5, 2025
oc
This is one occasion when the investigators should be encouraged with their job. They have made commendable progress, seemingly unhindered.
Comments could be more responsible from all parties.
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LankaScot / July 6, 2025
Hello Dinuk,
There are many Mass Graves and scenes of War Crimes in Sri Lanka that are known to the Scientific Community e.g. https://www.aaas.org/resources/geotech/high-resolution-satellite-imagery-and-conflict-sri-lanka
Google Earth also published a Layer that could be added to your own PC/Laptop. https://groundviews.org/2012/09/18/sri-lankas-forgotten-mass-graves-google-earth-and-remembering-the-dead-in-nandikadal/
All it needs is a Co-ordinated effort by the Government to collate the Data and perform the Exhumations where necessary. Here is a Link to the Handbook – https://www.aaas.org/resources/high-resolution-satellite-imagery-ordering-and-analysis-handbook
Of Course if there was a genuine “Truth and Reconciliation Tribunal, it should be possible to take Evidence from ex-Military “in camera” to protect their identity.
Best regards
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Dinuk / July 5, 2025
Today a new generation of Tamils and Sinhalas want to live together in peace— aside from a few old codgers like you –living in the colonial past and digging up the beggars wound!
Also, Sri Lanka needs a new generation of Historians to De-Colonize the Past.
A New Generation of Historians that looks beyond EU grants and the Anglo-Dutch colonial Archive and Raj Nostalgia narratives, supported by false claims that there was “perpetual ethno-religious conflict” in the island.
Have a sense of dignity and self-respect please and stop catering to White Malice.
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Ajith / July 5, 2025
“The Tamil people should not be silent. They should not rest until every avenue for justice has been fulfilled.”
Not only Tamils but also all citizens of Sri Lanka who wants justice for crimes against humanity should open their hearts and minds towards justice and peace in Sri Lanka. We should not focus only 2009 but we should go back to 1958 or before until now for the crimes again humanity.
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SJ / July 5, 2025
Are you sure that you want all crimes again humanity investigated?
Be cautious, you may be opening a can of worms.
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Human Touch / July 6, 2025
Dear Gentlemen,
I believe it is imperative that we place firm pressure on the government and all relevant authorities to conduct a full, honest investigation and identify all those responsible. Let this serve as a precedent to deter similar crimes in the future.
This is the right moment to act, as the current government was not involved in these atrocities and therefore has little reason to oppose such an investigation.
It’s also important to note that similar mass graves have been discovered in Sinhala-majority areas as well—such as in Matale, where members of the JVP were killed and buried. Although these graves were unearthed and remains exhumed, no substantial action has followed.
We must not be distracted by who delivers the message; instead, let us stand firmly by the truth. Let us demand justice for every human being who has been murdered—regardless of ethnicity, politics, or circumstance.
It must also be acknowledged that the JVP itself was responsible for the cold-blooded killing of many innocent people. These crimes too must be brought to light, and those responsible held to account.
Without accountability, there can be no justice.
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old codger / July 6, 2025
HT,
“We must not be distracted by who delivers the message; instead, let us stand firmly by the truth. Let us demand justice for every human being who has been murdered”
👍👍
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SJ / July 6, 2025
HT
Very true
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Justice1 / July 7, 2025
This is RELEVANT!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7oOFI1-tIE&ab_channel=NEXUSBULLETIN
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Good Sense / July 7, 2025
Mass killings! Mass Graves! Why must the concern of these sordid acts be limited to a particular ethnicity of Sri Lankans. True! After many moons something is coming out. But we must remember that it is the much-maligned Sri Lankan machinery where the author chose to serve in the bench of the highest court, convicted not only ex-Corporal Somaratne and others for the murders of Krishanthi Kumaraswamy but also the conviction “Swiss Kumar” and others for the murder of Sivaloganathan Vindya. I would invite all Sri Lankans to caste a watchful eye on what is going on with affair because that is the best way to ensure a clean administration of justice to this matter. What is the guarantee that a non-Sri Lankan would really be interested in this matter unless there is a vested interest. Every one of us know what happened to the piece of cheese when two cats were unable to divide it between themselves and sought assistance of the Monkey. The author creates an impression amongst the readers that he is acting the “cry-baby”. Boy! This is serious stuff and that approach belittles the victims of this horrific act.
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