Yesterday (30) marked the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances.
This week, the second-phase excavations at the Chemmani mass grave site in Jaffna resumed after an 18-day pause. By Friday (29), day 37 of the second phase, 187 skeletal remains had been identified, of which 174 have been fully recovered. The exhumed remains are now stored at the University of Jaffna, pending next steps.
Chemmani joins a long list of 17 mass grave sites across Sri Lanka where the Office on Missing Persons (OMP) has intervened in its mandate to investigate cases of victim families of those who have gone missing or have disappeared.
Many more are recognised by local residents, civil society groups, and researchers. At the Chemmani Sindubathi site — referred to by some as a burial ground and by others as a cremation site — excavations continue as remains of adults, children, and infants are found from beneath the earth.
Addressing a commemorative event organised by the OMP to mark the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances on Friday, Minister of Justice and National Integration Harshana Nanayakkara noted that the Government welcomed foreign expertise to support in matters relating to mass graves as well as enforced disappearances.
“The political culture in this country has been very defensive. Whenever our international friends tried to help us with expertise and assistance, they took it the wrong way. We don’t know everything. The best experts are outside. So let’s open up and get things done,” he said.
He added that a proposal had been prepared and that he would be handing it over to the foreign missions of South Africa, Switzerland, and Japan, which have expressed their willingness to support in capacity building for local resourcepersons as well as in technical matters of a scientific nature.
The Minister told the gathering of Government officials, foreign dignitaries, civil society, and families of victims that the Government intended to “solve” the issue within its term of administration.
From chain of custody and capacities of human resources to forensic analysis facilities, gaps were pointed out in the mass grave investigation process and capacities.
Chain of custody concerns
Investigating mass graves is a task requiring the intersection of law, science, and human rights. As OMP Executive Director Dr. J. Thatparan told The Sunday Morning, the process demands expertise in forensic anthropology, archaeology, and human rights law.
“The skeletons are safe while they remain in the ground. The challenge is what happens once they are exhumed as this falls in the hands of humans and institutions,” he observed.
In addressing this, Dr. Thatparan noted that ensuring the chain of custody was a central focus of the investigation process.
In many past cases like the Matale mass grave and the Sathosa mass grave in Mannar, samples that were sent for forensic analysis abroad returned with results that refuted the claims that these graves belonged to the period from the recent past where most enforced disappearances took place. This resulted in family members of the disappeared as well as civil society actors questioning the chain of custody, suggesting the process may have been compromised.
At present, recovered remains are transferred from the excavation site to the Jaffna Magistrate’s Court and then to the University of Jaffna. According to Dr. Thatparan, the OMP is developing standard operating procedures to handle analysis and ensure the maintenance of the chain of custody.
Science in the search for the missing
Exhumation is the first step to investigating mass graves. The analytical phase where the remains are identified and linked to missing persons databases requires advanced technology. In past cases, carbon dating has been used to establish whether remains found at certain sites, such as Mannar, correspond to known periods of conflict.
DNA testing remains a critical and challenging step. According to OMP Board Member Mirak Raheem, the condition of the soil and the passage of time make DNA extraction from bones especially difficult.
“One of the biggest challenges is collecting DNA from highly degraded bone samples. Acidity, moisture, and the years that have passed make this work extremely technical. There are specialised labs abroad that focus on burnt remains. Sri Lanka doesn’t yet have such facilities,” he said.
Dr. Thatparan also highlighted the fact that expertise in analysing infant bones was rare.
In the long term, the OMP hopes to establish specialised forensic labs in Sri Lanka, possibly attached to universities, so that analysis could be done locally, according to Raheem.
Dearth of human resources
On the subject of human resources and expertise, Dr. Thatparan noted that Sri Lanka lacked a strong tradition of forensic investigation in the fields of higher education, limiting this expertise to the Sri Lanka Police. The Executive Director claimed that relying on the Police for such investigations raised concerns given allegations of Police complicity in past disappearances.
To fill this gap, the OMP has worked with the United Nations (UN), International Organization for Migration (IOM), and International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to bring in consultants who have been trained in the Guatemalan and Peruvian contexts in order to build capacities of local teams.
Plans are underway to expand capacity building through partnerships with international missions and specialised training programmes, according to Thatparan.
Backlog of cases
Minister of Justice Nanayakkara also noted that 10,531 complaints of disappearances that had been lodged at the OMP had not been investigated.
A Cabinet paper has been submitted asking for Rs. 375 million to establish 25 panels with three members per panel to investigate these cases. The Minister opined that each of the inquiries would take about 45 minutes to one hour in duration. “These investigations will hopefully start by November,” he said.
Funding requirements
At a central level, the Ministry of Justice manages funding for mass grave excavations; these funds are subsequently disbursed through the courts. For Chemmani, funds have been secured, but officials acknowledge that the cost of managing grave sites and setting up forensic labs is enormous.
“This is not an expense a country like ours can bear alone,” said Dr. Thatparan. “We need external funding to sustain this work.”
Family members of the missing and disappeared
Meanwhile, Families of the Disappeared (FOD) held demonstrations in various locations around Colombo on Friday, highlighting issues around the financial relief allocated for affected families.
In a letter to the Minister of Justice, FOD Chair Brito Fernando claimed that no family had received the money allocated for them in the Budget for the year 2025.
“If, in the next four months, the allocated sum of Rs. 1,000 million is not utilised, it will have to be returned unspent to the Treasury,” the letter said.
The letter requested the Minister to intervene to obtain a Government decision endorsing the view that families of the disappeared should be entitled to a fixed system of compensation.