The British Tamils Forum (BTF) has written to United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk urging him to visit Mullivaikkal, the site of the 2009 genocide, and Chemmani, where mass graves have been unearthed. The UNHRC Head is scheduled to visit Sri Lanka shortly.
In a letter dated 27 May 2025, the BTF welcomed the visit and stressed its importance ahead of the 60th session of the UN Human Rights Council in September. The letter noted that the trip should help substantiate the findings of the OHCHR’s recent evidence-gathering efforts, including those reflected in report A/HRC/57/19 published in August 2024.
BTF General Secretary V Ravi Kumar cautioned that despite efforts by successive Sri Lankan governments to conceal the “scars and ongoing impacts of the atrocity crimes committed in the past seven decades,” Tamil communities continue to suffer the effects of state repression and systemic abuses.
The letter urged Türk to visit several critical locations and meet directly with Tamil civilians, relatives of the disappeared, human rights defenders, and Tamil politicians and parliamentarians in order to gain first-hand insight.
Among the sites highlighted was Mullivaikkal and Chemmani in Jaffna, where a mass grave was recently unearthed during construction work. “This is one of several reported mass graves exposed by developers during project execution in Sri Lanka,” the letter stated. It warned that a significant number of unreported graves remain hidden, with some developers covering up such findings to avoid delays. The Chemmani grave has long been linked to victims of torture, sexual violence, and extrajudicial killings.
The letter further called on the High Commissioner to visit selected areas in Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu, Vavuniya, and Mannar in the Northern Province, as well as Trincomalee, Batticaloa, and Amparai in the Eastern Province. These areas, it noted, remain under heavy military occupation 16 years after the end of the armed conflict, with Tamil communities subjected to “surveillance, intimidation, many forms of land grabs, systematic destruction of Tamil heritage and historical Hindu temples, and the proliferation of Buddhist structures.”
BTF warned that the Sri Lankan state may seek to block access to these areas under the pretext of security concerns. “Sri Lanka may play its trump-card of security risks and prevent Your Excellency’s visits to Tamil areas to hide its crimes and block access to the voice of the victims, but we wish Your Excellency to be sagacious for not falling into such traps,” the letter stated.