British MP urges UK government to lead international investigation into Chemmani mass grave

^{Families of the disappeared calling for an international investigation in Jaffna earlier this year.}

Dame Siobhain McDonagh, MP for Mitcham and Morden, has called on the UK government to lead on an international investigation into the Chemmani mass grave, where skeletal remains continue to be exhumed.

The mass grave site in Chemmani, Jaffna, dates back to the 1990s, when the Sri Lankan military occupied Jaffna. During this time, hundreds of Tamils who were forcibly disappeared or detained by the military were killed and buried there. In February 2025, skeletal remains were discovered by workers at Chemmani’s Ariyalai Sindhubath cemetery. Recent excavations have uncovered at least 33 sets of skeletal remains, many of which are believed to be of children.

McDonagh, who also serves as the Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils, has called on the UK government to take the lead to “deliver truth, accountability and justice.”

She went on to explain that the Resolution 46/1 passed at the United Nations Human Rights Council in March 2021, called for the capacity of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to be strengthened so that it could "collect, consolidate, analyse and preserve” evidence that may be used in future war crimes trials.

McDonagh stated that the United Nations must ensure that the evidence collected at the grave site must be conversed in line with Resolution 46/1 in order for the perpetrators to be brought to justice. 

“It is time for the UN to follow through on the mandate it holds,” McDonagh wrote in her statement. 

Read the full text of her statement here.

“The Labour government will focus on delivering an independent international investigation into crimes in Sri Lanka. In the UK, we have cross party support for such an investigation, Sen Kandiah, the Chair of Tamils for Labour told Tamil Guardian. 

Tamil activists, civil society groups and politicians have been calling for an international investigation into the mass grave site. 

Read more on the Chemmani mass graves here.