Columns

•  ITAK writes to President, calling for urgent and decisive action to uncover the truth and bring perpetrators to justice
• Ongoing battle for local council control raises concerns over electoral system; SJB rejects plan to place undecided councils under commissioners

By our Political Desk

Mass graves have been one of the tragic legacies of the country’s violent past over the past 40-odd years—from the southern insurrections of 1971 and 1987-89 to the northern separatist insurrection. Tens of thousands of men and women, both young and old, as well as children, became victims of the violence and simply disappeared. Time and again, however, evidence of their grisly fate comes to the surface with the discovery of a mass grave. Each discovery throws up uncomfortable truths that Sri Lankan society must grapple with if it is to heal the still festering wounds of the past and is further evidence of the victims’ long wait for justice.

The issue of mass graves is one that makes every government uncomfortable, but justice demands that they not be ignored. The ruling National People’s Power (NPP) government has insisted it will ensure justice for all victims of enforced disappearances—both in the North and the South. It also granted UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk unrestricted access to the Chemmani mass grave site during his official visit to the country last month.

Chemmani is not the only mass grave to have been discovered in recent years. Excavations at the Mannar Sathosa mass grave site and the mass grave site discovered at Kokkuthoduvai in Mullaitivu are still ongoing.

Ongoing excavations at Chemmani and other mass grave sites have again shined an unwelcome spotlight on Sri Lanka at a critical time for the country. While the mass graves and the country’s human rights situation at large are unlikely to have an impact on ongoing tariff negotiations with the United States (US), there is no doubt that, with each new discovery at Chemmani, pressure will only mount on the Sri Lankan government—from countries that have a minority Tamil diaspora with voting rights in their adopted homes, largely limited to Canada and Britain, though—to move forward with a mechanism to ensure accountability.

The Chemmani mass grave: On site magisterial inquiries in progress. Pic by Romesh Madushanka

Excavations at Chemmani to resume tomorrow

At the Siththupathi Hindu cemetery mass grave site in Chemmani, the ongoing excavation activi-ties will resume tomorrow following directives issued by the Jaffna Magistrate.

When the case was taken up for hearing before Magistrate A.A. Aanandaraja on Tuesday, Judicial Medical Officer (JMO) Dr. Piranavan Sellaiyah and archaeologist Prof. Raj Somadeva submitted their preliminary reports to the court, detailing the nature of the mass grave site and their observations.

Last week, the excavation team began its work on an adjacent area in the premises when it came to light more bodies could’ve been buried. The site was marked in court documents as ‘Site 2′.

The court was told that so far 65 full sets of human skeletons have been recovered from the site, with 63 remains from Site 1 and two more from the newly identified Site 2.

The JMO told the court that one set of human remains excavated along with a suspected blue school bag (presumably distributed by UNICEF during wartime) belonged to a child. Some children’s toys were also recovered near the remains as well.

In his report based on the earlier court order issued calling for a report on this particular discovery marked as ‘S-25,’ Dr. Piranavan suggested that the skeleton could belong to a child aged 3-4.

The JMO also pointed out there are similarities of human remains with other sets marked as ‘S-48′ and ‘S-56,’ suspected to belong to minors, compared to the skeleton structure and dresses that were recovered from the site. The court directed him to submit a comprehensive report after further investigations on the matter.

Foreign Affairs Minister Vijitha Herath meeting with Russia's Foreign Minister Sergie Lavrov in Malaysia last week

The court also imposed some restrictions on accessing the site for both media and lawyers repre-senting affected communities, considering recent worrisome interpretations that emerged in social media, including the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

In the preliminary report submitted by Prof. Somadeva, it was pointed out that, based on forensic evidence collected from the site and the order of the bodies buried, the site was a crime scene.

It was brought to the attention of the court that certain images that were taken at the site went viral on social media with different interpretations and twists by socalled social media influencers and digital content creators.

Stressing that this is a crime scene under judicial purview, the court directed that two lawyers from the Jaffna Bar be allowed to monitor the excavation activities on a roster basis in the morning and evening, with media and relevant experts only being allowed to take photographs at the site.

The case is to be taken up for hearing on August 6.

ITAK writes to President urging “urgent and decisive action”

Against this backdrop, the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK) has written to President Anura Kumara Disanayake, urging “urgent and decisive action to uncover the truth, ensure forensic pro-tocols meet internationally recognised standards, and bring perpetrators to justice.”

Following are excerpts from the letter:

“Truth seeking must serve as the foundation of any transitional justice process. Hundreds of families continue to seek answers, more than 16 years after the war ended in 2009. These families are asking an imperative question about the fate of their missing loved ones. The silence of successive regimes is not merely a political failure but a grave moral one.

“Every year without truth undermines the possibility of national healing and closure. The fifteen bodies removed in 1999 are clearly connected to the same criminal context as the current discoveries. However, the pending case in the Colombo Magistrate’s Court relating to that excavation has not been formally integrated with the present investigation.

“These must now be treated as part of a single criminal transaction. Only consolidation of both investigations can enable meaningful accountability. Sri Lanka’s limited domestic forensic capacity and the history of opaque handling of mass graves make transparent protocols and credible international oversight indispensable.

“Chain of custody must be documented meticulously. Independent forensic experts of recognised international standing should be engaged to oversee excavation, identification and analysis. Interim and final reports must be publicly disclosed to victims’ families, civil society, international observers and the wider public. It has come to light that the 15 bodies exhumed in 1999 were reportedly transferred to the University of Glasgow for analysis.

“To date, successive Sri Lankan governments have taken no meaningful steps to repatriate those remains, identify the victims or facilitate their proper last rites. Those remains must be urgently returned to Sri Lanka so they may be reinvestigated under the same internationally monitored protocols applied to the current Chemmani excavation, contributing to a unified and coherent truth-seeking process.

“The earth at Chemmani is speaking again. Over 40 skeletons, including infants, have emerged with personal artefacts that painfully affirm their civilian status and innocence. Yet many perpetrators remain at liberty. Symbolic gestures of reconciliation ring hollow without real legal action.”

With the ITAK writing to President Dissanayake, its Jaffna district parliamentarian S. Shritharan filed an application at Jaffna Magistrate Court on Tuesday seeking to visit the mass grave site, accompanied by a lawyer. The court said it would consider the application in keeping with regulations that individuals can visit such sites with the approval of the court.

Problems persist in local
council formation

Meanwhile, in about 50 local councils, the administration is yet to be formed more than two months after the conclusion of the 2025 local government election. The formation of some councils has been stayed by courts owing to legal challenges, while other councils have had their meetings postponed indefinitely owing to the lack of a quorum, mainly due to disputes over the method of voting to elect the head of the council.

On Monday, the Court of Appeal dismissed a writ petition filed seeking an interim order to prevent the respondents, including Western Province Local Government Commissioner Sarangika Jayasundara, from holding a secret ballot to elect the chairpersons and deputy chairpersons of several local government bodies, including the Seethawaka Pradeshiya Sabha. The petition was filed by a group of opposition party councillors, who claim to hold the majority in these local councils. A bench comprising Court of Appeal President Justice Rohantha Abeysuriya and Justice Priyantha Fernando dismissed the petition, ruling that the petitioners had failed to demonstrate sufficient grounds to issue notice to the respondents to proceed with the case. The government hailed the ruling, which Cabinet Spokesman Nalinda Jayatissa described as one that would enable public officials to take decisions without fear.

The first meeting of the Seethawaka Pradeshiya Sabha last month did not see the election of a chairperson and deputy chairperson owing to opposition parties walking out in protest at the decision to hold a secret ballot to decide whether to elect the chairperson by a secret or open vote. The NPP has 23 members in the Seethawaka PS, while other parties combined have 24 seats. As such, opposition parties walking out meant there was no quorum to continue the meeting. The PS met a second time on Tuesday, July 15, the day after the Court of Appeal’s ruling. The outcome, however, was no different than at the first meeting. A secret ballot held to decide the method by which the chairperson would be elected resulted in 24 votes cast in favour of a secret vote and 23 for an open vote, meaning someone in the opposition ranks had voted with the NPP for a secret ballot. Knowing that one among their ranks had betrayed them and would doubtless vote for the NPP candidate at the secret vote that would follow, angry opposition councillors led by the Samagi Jana Balawegaya again staged a walkout. Curiously, however, all 24 councillors who were from parties other than the NPP ended up walking out, meaning whoever cast the ballot for a secret vote too had walked out with the opposition. With the quorum for the meeting again being absent, Local Government Commissioner Sarangika Jayasundara had no choice but to again indefinitely postpone the council meeting without the council being constituted.

Despite the arrangement among opposition parties, primarily the SJB, the United National Party (UNP), Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) and the People’s Alliance (PA), to support each other to form the administration in local councils where no party has an outright majority, several incidents over the past one and a half months have shown that the arrangement does not have universal support among members at the grassroots level. There have been instances where opposition councillors have openly defied party directives. Monday’s meeting of the Beruwala Urban Council saw yet another such instance, when NPP and SJB councillors combined to thwart an independent group from obtaining control of the council. The six SJB councillors joined the three NPP members in the UC to elect the NPP candidate as the UC chairperson over the one fielded by the independent group. The NPP members returned the favour during the election of the deputy chairperson, casting their ballots to elect the SJB candidate. Members of the independent group, which had seven members on the council, reacted angrily to the conduct of the SJB, and party General Secretary Ranjith Madduma Bandara released a statement the following day announcing that the SJB had suspended all six SJB members who had supported the NPP during the election of the UC chairperson.

Shots fired at NPP Weligama
PS member’s house

Meanwhile, the formation of the Weligama Pradeshiya Sabha continues to be postponed owing to a series of disturbing incidents that have so far included allegations of death threats, accusations of bribery, an alleged abduction of two councillors, and now, a shooting targeting the house of a council member.

Early Wednesday, two unidentified gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire at the Thelijjawila residence of NPP Weligama Pradeshiya Sabha member Tharanga Nanayakkara. Mr. Nanayakkara, an attorney-at-law, had earlier lodged a police complaint over alleged death threats he had received from an SJB member of the Weligama Pradeshiya Sabha. As such, two armed police officers had been stationed at his house for protection. These officers had returned fire at the gunmen, who fled amid the retaliatory fire. A T-56 assault rifle had been used in the shooting, but the identity or motive for the shooting is yet to be established, and the assailants remain at large.

The shooting is the latest incident surrounding the Weligama PS, which is yet to be formed. The inaugural session of the Pradeshiya Sabha convened on June 27 was postponed indefinitely after the NPP claimed that two of its members had been “abducted” on the way to the meeting. The NPP had emerged as the largest party at the Weligama PS with 22 members, though other parties collectively had 23 seats. An attempt by the Southern Province Local Government Commissioner to move forward with electing the council head had to be abandoned in the face of fierce protests from the other NPP councillors, who demanded that the meeting be postponed until their colleagues could be found. They were also joined by dozens of party supporters who forced their way into the council hall. The two missing NPP councillors, Ajith Priyantha and Kamani Alwis, were later found near a beach in the Dewata area in Galle. They claimed to have been abducted on their way to the council meeting by unidentified men who arrived in a double cab, blindfolded, taken to a house, and held for several hours before being taken to the Devata area and released.

Opposition parties led by the SJB have contested the abduction claim of the two NPP councillors, alleging that the whole episode had been staged to avoid facing an election that the NPP knew it would lose. The opposition too has claimed its members were facing death threats. The NPP has vehemently refuted the allegations, countering that they were facing threats from some opposition party councillors with underworld links. More than 20 days since the alleged abduction, however, police have made no headway in their investigation, and no arrests have been made, further deepening the mystery.

Spotlight on electoral system amid
continuing chaos in local councils

The chaotic situation that has affected the election of heads of many councils will undoubtedly raise serious questions surrounding the Mixed Member Proportional Representation (MMPR) that was used in the local government election. Under the MMPR system, 60% of council members are elected through the first-past-the-post system, while 40% are chosen through proportional representation.

According to results released by the Election Commission, no political party or independent group managed to secure an outright majority of 50% or more of the total vote in 178 of the 339 local councils for which polls were held on May 6. In many instances, a political party or independent group that emerged as the largest bloc in a local council has been forced to lobby members elected from other parties and groups for support to establish council administrations. Yet, there have been plenty of occasions over the past few weeks where the largest party or group in a local council has been outmanoeuvred by those who had far fewer members but who had nevertheless managed to successfully obtain the support of enough councillors from other parties to win control. This has led to the process of establishing the councils becoming mired in controversy, with all sides being accused of engaging in under-the-table “deals,” including bribery, as part of efforts to win control of councils. Presently, control of a significant number of these 178 councils is hanging by a thread, propped up by majorities that can only be described as razor-thin. Even a minor disagreement, therefore, has the potential to flare into a full-blown crisis, obstructing the functioning of the whole council.

Elements within the NPP, which had foreseen such an eventuality, had spoken before the election of the need to change the prevailing electoral system. It is unclear, however, whether this will be given priority now.

SJB to oppose move to appoint special
commissioners to councils

The government, meanwhile, has hinted that it is considering bringing local councils that had been unable to form administrations so far owing to the deadlock in electing chairpersons and deputy chairpersons under the control of special commissioners. SJB National Organiser Tissa Attanayake said opposition parties would strongly oppose any such move. He pointed out that the deadlock had been created because a majority of councillors in these councils had walked out in protest over moves to force a secret ballot onto them to elect the heads of their councils. He alleged the government was insisting on secret ballots for these councils due to “deals” that had been made with some councillors to support NPP candidates during secret votes.

While the law does allow for the appointment of special commissioners for councils that fail to elect a chairperson and deputy chairperson, Mr. Attanayake stressed the law should not be used to achieve “anti-democratic ends”. The situation of these councils is clear in that a majority of voters in those councils had voted for parties other than the NPP, and therefore, the party should not be trying to deny the wishes of the majority, he argued. Mr. Attanayake also added that the number of local councils where opposition parties had walked out was less than 10. “This situation is not hard to resolve. All we ask is that the NPP allow for heads of these councils to be elected via an open vote. They shouldn’t act arbitrarily by saying they have constitutional powers and then use those powers to kick the people’s mandate aside.”

The SJB national organiser said that the Court of Appeal’s decision on Monday did not mean that their councillors could not insist on an open vote. The court’s ruling had affirmed that a decision on the voting method was up to the council. The majority of members in the councils in question were still insistent on holding an open vote to elect their council heads but were walking out because of the arbitrary decision to go for secret votes in defiance of the views of the majority, said Mr. Attanayake.

“Why is the government so frightened of open votes to elect heads of these eight or nine councils? Why is it threatening to appoint special commissioners to them in such an anti-democratic manner?” he asked.

While the SJB had not officially discussed issues with the MMPR system used in the election, Mr. Attanayake said his personal view is that the electoral system definitely needed amending because it is a “distorted system.”

Juggling US tariffs and BRICS

The Finance Ministry initiated a discussion with the United States trade representatives on Friday to negotiate a further reduction in the tariffs imposed on Sri Lankan exports to the US. Newly appointed Finance Ministry Secretary Dr. Harshana Suriyapperuma, along with relevant government officials, participated in a virtual meeting with the officials from the Office of the United States Trade Representative. While the success of the engagement with the US will depend on what concessions the government is willing to grant in return for lower tariffs as well as diplomatic tact and skill, the tough stance by US President Donald Trump on countries that side with the policies of the BRICS alliance will be a test for the country’s foreign policy under the NPP government.

President Trump has warned that any country aligning itself with the anti-American policies of BRICS will be charged an additional 10% tariff, and there will be no exceptions to this policy.

This comes at a time when Sri Lanka is seeking membership or partnership in BRICS, an 11-member grouping initially comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, and later including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia, Indonesia, and Iran. It serves as a political and diplomatic coordination forum for countries from the Global South and for coordination in the most diverse areas.

The idea of Sri Lanka’s accession to BRICs was first mooted at the Cabinet meeting held in January 2024 during the Ranil Wickremesinghe presidency. An Officials’ Committee was appointed to examine matters on Sri Lanka’s accession to BRICS and submit recommendations. The Officials’ Committee submitted its report, having examined the pros and cons of Sri Lanka’s accession to the BRICS and the New Development Bank to be established under the same, and Cabinet approval to pursue membership of the organisation was given in September 2024, just prior to the holding of the last presidential election.

Even though there was a change in government, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s government too has said it is keen to seek membership of the BRICS.

In a statement issued in November 2024, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that as approved by the Cabinet on October 7, 2024, Sri Lanka applied for membership in BRICS and the New Development Bank (NDB) and that Foreign Affairs Minister Vijitha Herath wrote to his counterparts in BRICS member countries, informing them of Sri Lanka’s interest in joining BRICS. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake also wrote to his Russian counterpart in this regard.

At the BRICS Outreach Summit held in Kazan, Russia, from October 22 to 24 last year, then-Foreign Secretary Aruni Wijewardena, as leader of the Sri Lanka delegation, announced Sri Lanka’s interest. At the Summit, the BRICS Member States also endorsed a new category of Partner Countries, whilst ‘welcoming the considerable interest by countries of the Global South in BRICS’ (Kazan Declaration).

However, given the threat of tariffs hanging over Sri Lanka, the government may rethink its decision to pursue BRICS membership, at least for now.

Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath was in Malaysia last week attending the 32nd ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, held on July 11 in Kuala Lumpur. On the sidelines of the summit, he met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and conveyed Sri Lanka’s sincere appreciation for Russia’s continued support at multilateral forums and discussed ways to further deepen bilateral relations across political, economic, and cultural spheres.

He also met with China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi and explored ways to deepen trade ties and long-standing bilateral relations. However, BRICS membership for Sri Lanka did not feature in these talks.

Sri Lanka is in a catch-22 situation where the US and BRICS are concerned at the moment. On one side the government is eager to secure lower US tariffs for Lankan exports while also pursuing membership of organisations such as BRICS. As of now, it increasingly looks like the government will have to choose one over the other.

Ranil/SJB MPs meet outgoing
US ambassador for dinner

Outgoing US Ambassador Julie Chung has been in one controversy or another since assuming duties in Colombo in February 2022. She arrived at a time the country was beginning to grapple with what would soon become Sri Lanka’s worst economic crisis. Less than six months after her assuming office, the country’s elected executive president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, was forced out of office. Much has been said of the backstory to what led to Mr. Rajapaksa’s resignation from office, with more than one conspiracy theory doing the rounds on the role of a foreign hand in what transpired during the period. While the former president has diplomatically refrained from naming the role a foreign diplomat based in Colombo played in some of the backroom drama, others have not been so discreet and have named Ambassador Chung as having overstepped her diplomatic lines during the crisis.

All that is now water under the bridge, and as the country readies to say goodbye as she winds up her tour of duty in Colombo, there is no lack of last-minute drama with Ambassador Chung in the middle of it.

This week she had dinner with former President Ranil Wickremesinghe and two prominent Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) members who were among the invitees. What transpired at the dinner table has been kept closely under wraps, but enough has got out to lead to speculation if Ms. Chung’s last hurrah in Colombo could cause another political event in the country.

This comes as the White House announced the nomination of Eric Meyer, a career diplomat from California, as the next Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to Sri Lanka.

US President Donald Trump has formally submitted Meyer’s name to the United States Senate for confirmation. Eric Meyer, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, is the Senior Bureau Official for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs.

He is responsible for overseeing the bureau and coordinating the administration’s policy priorities throughout South and Central Asia, including in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

So, while the country waits to welcome a new US Ambassador, the high-profile presence of Ms. Chung is likely to be missed, at least by some Colombo circles.