தரநிலை ஒப்பீடு · ICMP × செம்மணிStandards Benchmark · ICMP × Chemmani
The ICMP DNA-led kinship-analysis model is a peer-reviewed international standard, applied at scale to ~40,000 Balkan missing-persons cases since 1996. TLTE publishes this side-by-side against the current Chemmani forensic chain — as documented in HRCSL's own September 2025 fact-finding report — so that families, counsel, and international observers can read the gap in one page. This is a benchmarking artefact. It is not a demand and not a verdict.
Six dimensions of forensic chain.
Blood-reference samples voluntarily banked from surviving family members in a centralised database; kinship-analysis pathway defined before excavation completes.
Justice Minister Nanayakkara stated (Sunday Times, 28 Jun 2026) that international forensic assistance for DNA identification will be sought only 'once excavation concludes'. No public family-reference pathway on the record.
Bone DNA (femur/tibia) via massively parallel sequencing tolerant of degraded samples; teeth/soft tissue treated as secondary.
Public record does not specify extraction protocol. HRCSL Sep 2025 report notes gaps in domestic forensic expertise and carbon-dating capacity.
Statistical kinship inference across banked family DNA (siblings, parents, children) with published likelihood-ratio thresholds (Parsons et al. 2018).
No public standard documented. Identifications to date are partial and provisional; the judicial record carries counts, not attributed identities.
Documented handover chain from exhumation site → forensic archaeology → DNA lab → family reunification, auditable end-to-end.
Site is under Jaffna Magistrate's Court custody. HRCSL Sep 2025 findings document worker intimidation and record gaps at the site.
ICMP has UN observer status (UNGA A/RES/71/302) and works on formal invitation from state and family counsel.
No international forensic body formally engaged as of 22 Jul 2026. Standing call for independent international forensic oversight (Bishop of Mannar 2013 LLRC; PEARL; ITJP; Sri Lanka Brief Sep 2025).
~40,000 Balkan missing-persons cases processed under the ICMP DNA-led model since 1996.
480 sets of remains identified across phases 1–3, 479 fully exhumed over 96 days of work (Tamil Guardian 28 Jul 2026, reporting daily investigator briefings to court); 467 stood on the record at day 93 (India Today 22 Jul 2026, citing lawyer Ranitha Gnanaraja). Third phase halted 28 Jul, resumption reported for 4 Aug 2026. Of the 1999 phase, 8 of 15 remain un-returned per UN AL LKA 1/2025).
A public standards document families and counsel can hand to any international observer. TLTE does not deliver forensic services; ICMP (The Hague) does — on invitation.
A future in which every mass-grave case on the island is measured against a published international standard, and gaps are closed on the record, not on the news cycle.
- · Accuse the Sri Lankan state, its ministers, or the Jaffna court of misconduct.
- · Publish a TLTE-aggregated count of remains or attributed identities.
- · Substitute for ICMP's own methodology, which families' counsel must invite directly.
- · Assert what any international body will or will not do next.
- Parsons TJ et al. — Forensic Science International: Genetics2018Missing persons identification by kinship analysis — 20-year retrospective (2018)Open source
- International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP)StandingMethodology · DNA-led kinship identificationOpen source
- Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL)September 2025Fact-Finding Report on the ongoing investigation into the mass grave site in Chemmani, JaffnaOpen source
- Sunday Times (Sri Lanka)28 June 2026Govt to seek foreign forensic assistance for DNA identification of Chemmani remains, says Justice MinisterOpen source
- UNGA2017A/RES/71/302 — International cooperation on humanitarian assistance in the field of natural disasters, from relief to development (recognising ICMP)Open source
- Sri Lanka Brief16 September 2025Chemmani mass grave — how to go forwardOpen source