As United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk visited Jaffna on Wednesday, demonstrators lined Kovil Road with powerful visual displays, calling for international justice and accountability for decades of atrocities committed against the Tamil people.
The protest featured a series of poignant artworks and installations, with particular focus on the mass graves uncovered in Chemmani. Among the most moving were hand drawn artworks by children of the forcibly disappeared - Tamil men, women, and children who vanished during and after the war.
Beside the portraits stood banners, visual installations, and symbols echoing the long-standing demands of Tamil families and survivors for justice and accountability. The demonstration aimed to draw the attention of the High Commissioner, who visited the Chemmani mass grave site that day, and later met families of the disappeared at the ongoing “Unextinguished Flame” vigil.
The protest featured a series of poignant artworks and installations, with particular focus on the mass graves uncovered in Chemmani. Among the most moving were hand drawn artworks by children of the forcibly disappeared - Tamil men, women, and children who vanished during and after the war.
Beside the portraits stood banners, visual installations, and symbols echoing the long-standing demands of Tamil families and survivors for justice and accountability. The demonstration aimed to draw the attention of the High Commissioner, who visited the Chemmani mass grave site that day, and later met families of the disappeared at the ongoing “Unextinguished Flame” vigil.
Jatson, Co-Joint Coordinator of the North-East Coordinating Committee, spoke to reporters, expressing hope that the visit of the UN dignitary would bring about long-awaited change.
“We hope that the visit of this dignitary will mark a step toward justice,” he said. “Let his presence bring forth a resolution to land appropriation, justice for the mass graves discovered across our Northeast, and a long-overdue answer to the cries of mothers whose loved ones were forcibly disappeared.”
“May it also signify an end to the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), which continues to cast a shadow over our nation, and deliver a message of hope to those who live with the invisible wounds of war etched into their very beings.”
“We await with hope the promise of a federal system of governance that will uphold the collective rights of the Tamil people in the North and East.”
In a related show of solidarity, banners condemning the Tamil genocide were also unfurled at the University of Jaffna ahead of the High Commissioner’s meetings with local stakeholders.
The protest is one of several held across the North-East this week, as Tamils intensify calls for international accountability mechanisms. Demands have included international forensic oversight of mass grave exhumations, justice for the genocide, and meaningful political devolution.
Türk’s visit comes amid renewed scrutiny of the Chemmani mass graves, where 19 skeletons, including those of infants, were recently unearthed. His trip to Jaffna follows a broader tour of the island, during which he warned the Sri Lankan state against falling into an “impunity trap” and urged the pursuit of truth and justice as essential to reconciliation and peace.
