In search of Truth, Justice and Reparations

By Hirun Matheesha and Sahan Tennakoon

On roadsides from Vavuniya to Matara, mothers still stand with photographs pressed to the light, as if willing the truth to appear. Their children, husbands and siblings vanished in the chaos of war, counterinsurgency sweeps or the uneasy silences that followed.

Tens of thousands missing. Decades of official denials. A civil society that refuses to pack up its banners and go home. This is where that search stands today. For decades, the law has looked the other way, either unable or unwilling to confront this unspeakable crime.

Statistics and causes of enforced disappearances

Since the inception of the civil war in 1983, Sri Lanka has experienced one of the gravest crises of enforced disappearances globally. It ranks second only to Iraq based on reported cases received by the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances. According to human rights organizations, an estimated 60,000 to 100,000 individuals have disappeared since the late 1980s, whereas official records from the government establish over 65,000 formal complaints.

Both foreign and domestic investigations have further upheld these claims. The UN conducted a survey in 1999 that confirmed that thousands of people had gone missing after they were taken into custody, while the Paranagama Commission in 2013 recorded over 23,000 complaints, of which nearly 19,000 were established cases. The Office on Missing Persons has now accounted for over 16,000 disappearances, again affirming the scale of the issue.

They occurred in waves of violence following each other, contributing to tens of thousands of such cases discovered in earlier reports. They showed themselves most obviously during the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) uprisings, the protracted civil war and the final couple of months of the latter in 2009.

Although the war came to an end in 2009, disappearances continued. Tamils, journalists and political dissidents were the targets of abductions, which were frequently conducted in unmarked white vans. This post-war continuation of disappearances reminded many people that even in the absence of wars, the machinery of repression remained firmly in place.

Grim proof of these disappearances can be found in mass graves scattered throughout the island. In 1994, families were led to an abandoned police camp on Mount Sooriya by human rights activists and political organizations, which led to the discovery of Sri Lanka’s first mass grave. A horrifying set of human bones, ripped blue school uniforms, sarongs and commonplace items like ballpoint pens were discovered during excavations. These items served as silent witnesses to the lives that had been brutally taken.

Since then, people have found mass graves all over the island either by chance or from tips. Of the 33 identified graves, six are connected to victims of the 2004 tsunami, where over 8,000 people went missing. The other sites likely hold the remains of individuals who vanished during the JVP armed conflicts and the long civil war. Currently, officials have documented 24 mass graves, and excavations are still in progress at a couple of other sites.

One of the most striking discoveries happened in 2018 in Mannar, a Tamil-majority coastal town. After the excavations, officials announced that it’s the second largest mass grave with over 300 skeletons, including at least 28 children. These findings show the scale of the atrocities and the deep scars felt by the communities still searching for truth and justice.

The most recent excavation efforts have focused on Chemmani in Jaffna, located less than one hundred metres from a main road. By July 27, 101 skeletal remains had been recovered from the site, including those of children and infants. The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) issued a statement calling on the Sri Lankan authorities to ensure transparency and accountability in these investigations, emphasizing that each grave not only serves as physical evidence of past violence but also symbolizes the ongoing pain of families still seeking the truth.

Measures taken to make them right

In 2015, the country took an important first step towards addressing this long-standing issue by signing the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICPPED). This move recognized the right of families to know the truth about what happened, the progress of investigations, and the fate of the missing. The establishment of the Office on Missing Persons (OMP) was another effort in this direction, providing families with an institution dedicated to clarifying cases. One of its key contributions has been the publication of a List of Complaints and Information Regarding Missing and Disappeared Persons, which serves as a baseline to measure progress and ensure that individual cases are not forgotten. For families who have spent years searching for answers, these steps symbolize the hope that their voices will finally be heard.

Over the years, successive governments have launched several commissions to uncover the truth and respond to the demands for justice. The Udalagama Commission, set up in 2006, sought to examine serious human rights violations after August 2005. This was followed by the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission in 2011, which attempted to reflect on the conflict and propose steps for healing. In 2013, the Paranagama Commission was established to look specifically at abductions and disappearances. More recently, in January 2021, a new Commission of Inquiry headed by former Supreme Court Justice A.H.M. Nawaz was appointed to review the findings of earlier investigations. Although a draft final report with recommendations was submitted to President Ranil Wickremesinghe in early 2023, it has not yet been released to the public. These efforts, while significant, remind us that transparency and meaningful action are essential if Sri Lanka is to bring truth, dignity and closure to families who have lived for decades in silence and grief.

Why have so many of them failed?

Despite the many steps taken, these measures have largely failed to bring justice or closure to families of the disappeared. Signing international conventions and setting up commissions created the appearance of progress, but in practice, they did not lead to accountability. Investigations have often been slow, incomplete or never properly concluded, leaving families with only promises rather than answers. The Office on Missing Persons, while an important institution, has struggled with limited powers and resources, making it difficult to uncover the truth or prosecute those responsible. For families who have lived for decades in uncertainty, these shortcomings deepen the pain as the very mechanisms meant to help them end up reinforcing a cycle of frustration and distrust. Without clear results, truth-telling and justice remain distant ideals rather than lived realities.

One of the major reasons for this failure is the lack of political will and transparency in handling past inquiries. Commissions such as the Udalagama, Paranagama and Nawaz-led bodies gathered testimonies, evidence and recommendations, but their findings were either shelved, left unpublished or not acted upon. Successive governments have often treated these initiatives as symbolic gestures to ease international pressure rather than as genuine processes of accountability. The absence of prosecutions or concrete follow-up has created a sense of impunity where perpetrators remain untouched and victims’ families remain unheard. Moreover, the secrecy surrounding reports such as the unreleased draft final report of the Nawaz Commission undermines public confidence and denies families the right to the truth. In this way, what could have been meaningful steps towards reconciliation have instead become reminders of unfulfilled promises, highlighting the urgent need for Sri Lanka to move beyond words and towards action that restores dignity, trust and justice.

-This article was originally featured on groundviews.org