by Sulochana Ramiah Mohan and T. Pratheepan – Jaffna, Ceylon Today, September 4, 2025 Seven new sets of human remains were fully exhumed from the Chemmani mass grave yesterday (3), while additional nine sets were identified. This marks the continuation of the third section of the second phase of excavations at the site, which began… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Politics
Fact Finding Report of HRCSL on Chemmani
by Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, Colombo, September 2025 Fact-Finding-Report-of-HRCSL-on-Chemmani-Mass-Grave-Site This report details the main findings, observations, and recommendations of the HRCSL emerging from its visit and subsequent developments surrounding the exhumations and excavations at the mass grave site in Chemmani. The findings and observations are organised under specific themes: (1) the functions and… Read more »
Memories of Mass Murder
Unearthed bones in Chemmani reopen the wounds of Sri Lanka’s war years and the silence that followed. by Saikiran Kannan, Frontline, The Hindu, Chennai, September 1, 2025 The excavators kept digging in the midday heat, when something soft-blue rose above the dusty earth: a child’s school bag, its nylon straps still looped around a tiny… Read more »
Sri Lanka Faces Renewed Global Scrutiny Ahead of UNHRC Session
by Sulochana Ramiah Mohan, Ceylon Today, Colombo, August 16, 2025 Sri Lanka is once again under the global human rights spotlight as the 60th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) approaches. With mounting momentum for the adoption of a resolution targeting the country’s human rights record, questions remain over how the newly… Read more »
Buried Tales of Past Violence from Chemmani
Chemmani is Sri Lanka’s collective shame and evidence of systemic failure to deal with extra-judicial killings and deliver truth, justice and accountability by Dilrukshi Hanunnett, The New Indian Express, Chennai, July 6, 2025 More recently reprinted from The Associated Press, NY, see below also: A wartime mass grave in Sri Lanka yields a baby bottle,… Read more »
‘Quest for Human Rights: The Sri Lanka Ethnic Issue’
by Sunil C. Roy, VAP Enterprises, New Delhi, 1987 Comment by former Sangam Founder and Editor, Dr. Rajan Sriskandarajah: Just prior to the 1987 Indian military intervention in Sri Lanka’s national (ethnic) conflict, a booklet detailing the persecution of the Tamils, was widely distributed all over the world. Although it was printed & distributed privately,… Read more »
Rep. Bill Johnson One Minute Speech re Sri Lanka
by US.Representative Bill Johnson (R-OH), US Congress, Washington, DC, May 16, 2013
Argentina: Searching for the Children of the Disappeared
A new book examines the extraordinary decades-long campaign by Argentinean women to find their grandchildren. by Graciela Mochkofsky, The New Yorker, July 31, 2025 “Ispent five years researching and writing this story, and I still find it hard to believe,” Haley Cohen Gilliland told me during the launch of her book, “A Flower Traveled in… Read more »
HRW: Police Target Families of ‘Disappeared’
UN Human Rights Council Should Monitor Repression, Counterterrorism Law Abuses by Human Rights Watch, New York, August 20, 2025 (Geneva) – Sri Lankan security forces still harass families of victims of forced disappearances and misuse the country’s draconian counterterrorism law a year since President Anura Kumara Dissanayake took office with promises of reform, Human Rights Watch said today…. Read more »
Government Announcing Release of Lands in Jaffna Largely Political Rhetoric
by LankaFiles, July 28, 2025 It has been revealed that the repeated claims made by successive presidents, including the current head of state, regarding the release of ancestral lands in the Valikamam region of Jaffna district, are largely political rhetoric. At a press conference held in Jaffna, civil society activists and local residents asserted that… Read more »
AHRC: Island of Mass Graves 2014
by Asian Human Rights Commission, Hong Kong, Feb-Apr 2014 These articles contain important information on Chemmani and other mass graves. AHRC Island of Mass Graves 2014 editorial AHRC Island of Mass Graves 2014 enforced disappearances AHRC Island of Mass Graves 2014 Chemmani unearthed yet untold SRI LANKA: The Island of mass graves – Asian Human… Read more »
Türk: Sri Lanka has Opportunity to Break from Past
by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, August 13, 2025 Non-official UN languages:Tamil version (PDF) Sinhala version (PDF) GENEVA – A report published today by the UN Human Rights Office calls on Sri Lanka’s Government to seize the historic opportunity to break with entrenched impunity, implement transformative reforms, and deliver long-overdue justice and accountability for serious violations and abuses… Read more »
OHCHR’s 2025 Report on Sri Lanka
by UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Geneva, August 12, 2025 a-hrc-60-21-auv.pdf OHCHR report on Sri Lanka Aug 12 2025 Summary The present report, submitted pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 57/1, provides a comprehensive analysis of the human rights situation in Sri Lanka. It notes the new Government’s pledges to address… Read more »
HRW: UN Rights Report Details Security Force Abuses
UN Human Rights Council Should Adopt Resolution that Promotes Accountability by Human Rights Watch, New York, August 15, 2025 (Geneva) – The United Nations Human Rights office’s report on Sri Lanka details entrenched and systemic rights violations—including arbitrary detention, torture, and deaths in custody—under President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, Human Rights Watch said today. The new report by the UN High Commissioner… Read more »
BBC: Ancient Site Stirs Heated Political Debate on India’s Past
by Cherylann Mollan, BBC, London, July 27, 2025 ASI A view of an excavated site in Keeladi where archaeologists have found evidence of industrial activity The Keeladi village in India’s southern Tamil Nadu state has unearthed archeological finds that have sparked a political and historical battle. Amid coconut groves, a series of 15ft (4.5m) deep… Read more »
How Unearthing Keeladi Became a Row over India’s Past
by Kavita Muralidharan, India Today, July 22, 2025 Divergence from the dominant north-centred history of Indian civilisation is alleged to be the reason for marginalisation of the archaeologist who led initial excavations at the Tamil Nadu site. Share In Short Archaeologist K. Amarnath Ramakrishna led key Keeladi excavations revealing early urban Tamil civilisation. His 2023… Read more »
Amnesty: Submission to the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances
by Amnesty International, London, July 21, 2025 Index Number: ASA 37/0125/2025 Amnesty Submission to the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances July 2025 INTRODUCTION Sixteen years since the war ended, thousands of victims of enforced disappearances continue to suffer as they await truth, justice, and reparation. During its nearly three-decade long internal armed conflict between 1983-2009, Sri Lankan… Read more »
Is Sri Lanka Turning the Page on Its Violent Past?
The new president has the opportunity to help the nation come to terms with its brutal civil war. by Ruth Pollard, Bloomberg News, New York, July 22, 2025 Delve into the recent crop of prize-winning Sri Lankan literature and you will find a country mired in grief. From Shehan Karunatilaka’s 2022 Booker prize-winning The Seven Moons of… Read more »
The Rise and Collapse of Sri Lanka’s Right-Wing Dynasty
by The Morning Telegraph, originally in the Sri Lanka Guardian with some edits, Colombo, June 30, 2025 From D.S. Senanayake’s careful grooming of leaders to Ranil Wickremesinghe’s failure to build a new generation, this is the story of how the United National Party (UNP) went from unrivaled dominance to irrelevance. Discover how lost succession planning… Read more »
Fonseka’s Statement Puts Foreign Minister in Difficulty
by LankaWeb, Colombo, July 18, 2009 Fonseka statement July 2009 Lanka News Web A senior Foreign Ministry official told Lanka News Web that irresponsible comments made by former Army Chief General Sarath Fonseka in the past few days put Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama in a difficult spot during his visit to the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM)… Read more »