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The Association for Relatives of the Enforced Disappeared in the North-East (ARED) has appealed to the United Nations to ensure an international investigation into enforced disappearances and mass graves across the Tamil homeland, including the ongoing excavations at Chemmani, where more than 380 human skeletal remains have been uncovered.

In a letter dated 19 June 2026, the association called on the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the United Nations Human Rights Council to intervene, stating that seventeen years a

The United States Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, S. Paul Kapur, met the Sri Lankan president Anura Kumara Dissanayake at the Presidential Secretariat during a three-day visit to the island, in talks centred on trade, investment and security cooperation.

Kapurs visit, from 21 to 24 June, was billed by the United States as a mission to "advance trade, investment, and security cooperation", and was framed by the Trump administration as a reflection of its drive to deepen ties with Sri Lanka as "a key Indian Ocean part

Thirteen more skeletal remains were exhumed from the Chemmani mass grave on Monday and a further seven newly identified, bringing the total identified at the site to 412, of which 390 have now been exhumed, as the excavation, the

Excavation work at the Chemmani mass grave, the largest uncovered on the island, has once again been temporarily halted, with officials planning to resume around 15 July.

The dig has so far yielded 412 sets of sk

The Tamil Nadu chief minister, Vijay, made a brief reference to Eelam Tamils during a speech in the state legislative assembly on Tuesday, recalling his participation in a 2008 hunger strike in support of Tamils during the final stages of the armed conflict, in remarks that looked back to his own activism rather than to the realities facing Tamils in the North-East today.

"Back in 2008, we undertook a hunger strike in support of Eelam Tamils. We demanded that the war come to an end and that Eelam Tamils should be able to live peacefully," he said.

The Sri Lankan military has erected a signboard designating a military-run agricultural farm on privately owned land inside the Valikamam North High Security Zone (HSZ), entrenching its presence even as landowners campaign for the return of their property.

Large tracts of private land in Valikamam North have remained under military occupation for more than three decades, since the High Security Zone (HSZ) was established during the armed conflict and thousands of Tamil families were displaced from June 1990.

The owners have never stopped demanding