Weerawansa attacks Chemmani excavation as plot to brand Sri Lanka genocidal

The hardline Sinhala nationalist and National Freedom Front (NF) leader Wimal Weerawansa has attacked the ongoing excavation of the Chemmani mass grave, claiming the process is intended to portray Sri Lanka internationally as a country associated with crimes, war crimes and genocide.

Speaking at a media briefing at the NFF headquarters in Colombo on Sunday, Weerawansa, a former minister, alleged that the government had intensified the Chemmani excavation after assuming office, using funds largely contributed through taxes paid by Sinhalese citizens. He characterised the campaign for justice, including protests by Catholic clergy in Colombo and Jaffna, as part of an effort to brand the island a land of atrocity.

Weerawansa further criticised the Office on Missing Persons, claiming that although it is a state institution, it was operating according to a "separate agenda". He questioned why the office had not taken similar action over alleged mass graves of Sinhalese police officers and civilians who, he claimed, were killed by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, and asserted that current efforts were aimed at targeting former senior military officers.

Weerawansa, a former propaganda secretary of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna who broke away to form the NFF and later became a key ally of the Rajapaksa administration, has long cultivated a combative Sinhala nationalist profile. In recent months he has warned of "resurgent separatism", claimed there is "no such thing" as Buddhist extremism, and clashed with police while attempting to disrupt preparations for the Sri Lankan militarys "Victory Day".

The Chemmani excavation is being carried out under the supervision of the Jaffna Magistrates Court, not at the discretion of the Office on Missing Persons, and follows the discovery of human remains at the site. Across three court-authorised phases, investigators have recovered 480 sets of skeletal remains, among them those of infants and young children, some found alongside schoolbags, clothing and feeding bottles, making it the largest mass grave uncovered on the island.

Chemmani first entered public record in 1998, when a Sri Lankan soldier testifying in the trial over the abduction, rape and murder of the schoolgirl Krishanthi Kumaraswamy disclosed that Tamils who had disappeared in the custody of the security forces were buried there. The current dig has drawn international attention, including a recent visit by a European Union delegation, even as families of the disappeared continue to reject domestic mechanisms and demand an independent international investigation.

Weerawansas intervention reflects a wider Sinhala nationalist backlash against the excavation and the accountability it threatens to expose. The process of identifying the dead at Chemmani has yet to begin, and no one has been charged.