Chemmani Journalist Pack.

Use these names, in this form.

Site (full)

Ariyalai Siththupaththi Hindu Cemetery, Nallur, Jaffna

Site (short)

Chemmani

Court

Jaffna Magistrate's Court

Lead forensic archaeologist

Prof. Raj Somadeva (Postgraduate Institute of Archaeology, University of Kelaniya)

Counsel of record

V.S. Niranjan

UN standing file

OHCHR Sri Lanka Accountability Project (OSLAP) — HRC res. 46/1, 51/1, 57/1, renewed 60/1

The ten quotable facts.

1. 01Chemmani was first named in 1998 court testimony by Cpl Somaratne Rajapakse during the Krishanthi Kumaraswamy trial.
2. 02The 1999 exhumation recovered 15 bodies; 2 were identified by relatives from clothing; remains were never returned to families (UN AL LKA 1/2025).
3. 031999 bone samples were routed to the University of Ruhuna, Galle — not to Glasgow (correcting a widely repeated second-hand claim).
4. 04In February 2025, construction workers building a new crematorium at the Ariyalai Siththupaththi Hindu Cemetery, Nallur, unearthed further remains; the Jaffna Magistrate's Court re-opened the site.
5. 0541 bone samples were confirmed for analysis in February 2025.
6. 06As of end-June 2026, over 410 sets of remains had been publicly identified on the judicial record, with over 400 exhumed (Tamil Guardian day-count reporting; Groundviews long-form, 14 August 2025).
7. 07In April 2026, LKR 2.1 million was released for Phase 3 of the excavation.
8. 08EU diplomatic observers (France, Germany, Italy, Romania) have been present at the site.
9. 09Cpl Somaratne Rajapakse has publicly offered to name senior military officers implicated in the killings.
10. 10Sri Lanka is not a State Party to the Rome Statute — the ICC route is closed. This was confirmed on the UK parliamentary record by Foreign Secretary David Lammy in reply to MP Uma Kumaran (FAC Q315–Q316).

Eight hard lines.

• ·Do NOT publish or repeat any name of a person believed to be a victim, or the name of any family member of the disappeared, without written consent obtained by an accredited survivor organisation. Chemmani identification is partial and legally live.
• ·Do NOT assert cause of death, perpetrator identity, or command responsibility. That is a matter for an independent judicial and forensic process.
• ·Do NOT state or imply that TLTE has aggregated or verified any casualty figure. TLTE cites the Jaffna court record and Tier-A reporting; it does not aggregate.
• ·Do NOT frame the ICC as a live route. Sri Lanka is not a Rome Statute state party. UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy confirmed this on the FAC record (Q315–Q316).
• ·Do NOT describe the case as a 'VAT dispute' or an 'equipment dispute' — this framing was retired after Pass 4 verification.
• ·Do NOT name the presiding Magistrate. Refer to 'the presiding Jaffna Magistrate'.
• ·Do NOT describe the 1999 bone samples as having gone to Glasgow. They went to the University of Ruhuna, Galle.
• ·Do NOT describe MOZI, Velicham, or any TLTE system as autonomous. All AI outputs are human-reviewed.

Cite these first.

• OHCHR — Sri Lanka Accountability Project (OSLAP)

  The UN standing evidence-repository. Chemmani sits inside this file. Mandated by HRC 46/1, renewed 51/1, 57/1, 60/1.

  Open source
• UN AL LKA 1/2025 (21 July 2025)

  Joint Allegation Letter from four UN Special Procedures mandate-holders (SR Truth/Justice/Reparation — Bernard Duhaime; WGEID; SR Extrajudicial Executions; SR Independence of Judges & Lawyers).

  Open on this Institute
• UK FAC Q315–Q316 (Lammy / Kumaran)

  UK Foreign Affairs Committee oral evidence. Foreign Secretary confirms Sri Lanka is not an ICC state party; opens the OSLAP / universal jurisdiction / UNGA-UNSC / targeted-sanctions routes.

  Open on this Institute
• HRCSL Fact-Finding Report (September 2025)

  Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka's own report on Chemmani. Notes gaps in domestic carbon-dating capacity and forensic expertise.

  Open source
• Joint civil-society letter to UN High Commissioner Volker Türk (16 June 2025)

  HRW, ICJ, Amnesty and four other bodies wrote publicly ahead of the High Commissioner's 23–26 June 2025 visit.

  Open source
• Groundviews long-form (14 August 2025)

  Standing long-form coverage of the current phase.

  Open source
• Tamil Guardian — Chemmani tag

  Day-count reporting on the excavation.

  Open source

TLTE does not accept survivor or family intake.

For interviews with survivors, families of the disappeared, or accredited casework, route through these bodies. They hold the casework. The Institute cites.

• ITJP — International Truth and Justice Project

  Survivor testimony intake and international accountability litigation (Sri Lanka focus).

  Open
• PEARL — People for Equality and Relief in Lanka

  Washington-based Tamil-led rights organisation. Family-of-the-disappeared casework.

  Open
• Adayaalam Centre for Policy Research

  Jaffna-based research and advocacy; deep field context for the North-East.

  Open
• OMP — Office on Missing Persons (Sri Lanka)

  Sri Lanka's statutory body for the disappeared. Cite record, note limitations.

  Open