Chemmani protest enters third day as Tamils demands answers for disappearances

The ongoing protest demanding justice for the victims of the Chemmani mass graves entered its third consecutive day on Wednesday, with families of the disappeared maintaining a solemn vigil at the site in Jaffna.

The protest began on Monday with the lighting of an anaiya vilakku - an unquenchable flame - near the Chemmani junction, symbolising the enduring struggle for justice and accountability. Tamil families of the disappeared, activists, and youth have since kept the flame burning day and night, as they continue to demand international action and justice.

Among those present was a grieving mother from Kilinochchi, Vairamuthu Niranjanadevi, who has been searching for her three disappeared children for the past 16 years. Speaking at the vigil, she recounted the agonising loss of her sons and daughter during the final months of the armed conflict in 2009.

Her eldest son, Vairamuthu Vaikundhan, disappeared on 11 February 2009. Her second son, Vairamuthu Lokithan, went missing on 22 March the same year. Just weeks later, her daughter, Vairamuthu Pradayini, disappeared on 12 May 2009 — all during the final stages of Sri Lanka’s military offensive in the North-East.

Three of her seven children remain unaccounted for. Niranjanadevi now resides in Kilinochchi with her husband and four other children, one of whom is living with a disability. Despite advanced age and poverty, her husband continues to search for their missing children, enduring immense hardship.

She says she has approached multiple official commissions to obtain information on their whereabouts but has been met with silence and inaction.

She is just one of the dozens of families at the protest site seeking truth and justice.

The protest comes in the wake of renewed international attention on the Chemmani mass graves, where 19 skeletons, including those of three infants, were recently unearthed. Tamils have called for international forensic experts to investigate the site and have urged the visiting UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, to ensure global oversight.