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# Families of Jaffna’s Disappeared Elect New Leaders and Call Protest Over Chemmani Report
- URL: https://www.jaffnamonitor.com/featured/families-of-jaffnas-disappeared-elect-new-leaders-and-call-protest-over-chemmani-report/
- Published: 2026-11-05T12:38:33.000Z
- Updated: 2026-11-05T15:37:19.000Z
- Author: Our Reporter
- Tags: November 2026

**JAFFNA, Sri Lanka:** An association of families of people who disappeared during Sri Lanka’s civil war has elected a new leadership in Jaffna district. It has also announced a protest at the Chemmani mass grave site to reject an archaeologists’ interim report that found the burials more closely resembled formal interment than a clandestine grave.

The Jaffna District Association of Relatives of the Enforced Disappeared held the election at the Sivaguru Aadheenam hall in Nallur. Sivanandan Jeyatha presided. She is secretary of the association’s North-East body and leads its Vavuniya district chapter. Sivapatham Ilankothai was elected district president, Gajendrakumar secretary, Sathiya Vijayabama treasurer, Vigneswari vice president and Sutha deputy secretary.

In a statement, the new leaders said they would lead all protests on behalf of families of the disappeared in the district.

The association said it “completely rejects” the interim report and will demonstrate at the Chemmani site at 2 p.m. on Nov. 16 to demand international justice. A planning meeting is set for 11 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 7, at the same hall in Nallur. The association invited civil society activists, religious leaders, Tamil political parties, human rights activists, university students and the public to attend both.

The report was submitted to the Jaffna Magistrate’s Court in October by Raj Somadeva, a professor at the Postgraduate Institute of Archaeology at the University of Kelaniya, and the archaeologist Anusha Wanninayake. It records at least 574 individuals recovered from the Sinthupathi Hindu cemetery at Chemmani, on the outskirts of Jaffna. By its own preliminary estimate, 41 percent of the dead were children and 22 percent were infants. The authors wrote that the site more closely resembles formal burial practices than a clandestine grave, but that the evidence so far is insufficient for a definitive conclusion.

The finding has drawn objections from Tamil political parties and from families of the disappeared, who have challenged the report in the Magistrate’s Court. Critics have noted that Professor Somadeva told Al Jazeera in June 2025 that his first interim report identified the site as a mass grave. His second interim report, a month later, pointed to signs of criminal activity. The judicial medical officer leading the medical examination, Dr. S. Pranavan, has not released his own report.

Chemmani has been tied to allegations of mass killing since 1998\. That year, Somaratne Rajapakse, a soldier convicted in the rape and murder of the schoolgirl Krishanthi Kumaraswamy, told the Colombo High Court that hundreds of bodies were buried in the area. Construction workers found human remains at the cemetery in February 2025, and court-ordered excavations began that May.

The Magistrate’s Court is due to review the excavation, the interim report, and a request by the Criminal Investigation Department for carbon dating on Nov. 19, three days after the planned protest.