Searching for a Black Pen from the Chemmani Mass Gravesite
Photo courtesy of Kumanan
Twenty nine years ago, in September 1996, schoolgirl Krishanthi Kumarasamy was brutally raped and killed by the military. She was my schoolmate at Chundikuli Girls College in Jaffna. As a 16-year old student I was afraid to express myself. I buried memories of my Jaffna school to forget the murder of Krishanthi. My red and black school tie, which was once my pride, became my pain. Each time I saw the old photos of myself in the tie, I was reminded of Krishanthi’s death. But I didn’t know how to express myself until I met my psychotherapist. I healed myself and returned to my Jaffna school in 2022.
This year, I met my Jaffna classmate after 30 years. While we were walking on the beach, I picked a pen from the sand. She asked me, “Is it a black pen”? I said it was. She replied, “It’s too painful to have a black pen. Black pens reminds me of so much pain. Recently my son asked me for a black pain and I started to cry”.
As a holistic healer, I sat on the rock to listen to her. She opened up an old wound and shared her secret of pain after 29 years. Two weeks before Krishanthi was murdered, she had asked for a black pen from my friend, who gave Krishanthi her pen. Now she is looking for her pen at Chemmani Ariyalai Siththupaththi Hindu cremation site in Jaffna. Each time she looks at the photos and listens to the news, she wonders whether her black pen would be found at the site.
A total of 135 skeletons have so far been found at the gravesite. Ground Penetrating Radar scanning by the Sri Jayewardenepura University’s technology team has begun. Three commissioners from the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, Prof. Thaiyamuthu Thanaraj, Prof. Farzana Haniffa and Dr. Gehan Gunatilleke, have visited the site to observe the ongoing excavation.
On August 5, clothing and other items found alongside human skeletal remains and excavated from the site will be displayed for members of the public to view as part of the investigation from 1.30 pm to 5 pm. The CID submitted a request to the Jaffna Magistrate’s Court seeking permission to conduct a public identification process for the exhumed other evidence. The court granted order for the request. Members of the public will inspect the items and, if they are able to identify any belongings, to support the ongoing investigation. Priority will be given to family members who have officially lodged complaints regarding disappeared persons. They will need to present documents confirming their relationship to the disappeared. Decisions regarding access for others will be made based on the available data, according to guidelines issued by the Magistrate, A.A. Anandarajah.
The renewed discovery of human remains almost three decades later at Chemmani-Siththupaththi in February 2025 highlights the continuing urgency of credible, transparent, rights-compliant and victim-centred investigations that are capable of leading to truth and accountability, a statement from the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) said.
“We must remember that behind every set of remains lies a family that has endured unimaginable suffering. These forensic investigations must be conducted with the utmost respect for human dignity and with the full participation of families. International oversight is required to ensure that these processes meet the highest professional and legal standards that the gravity of these crimes warrants”, said Mandira Sharma, Senior International Legal Adviser of the ICJ. “The Chemmani exhumations represent a critical juncture for Sri Lanka’s transitional justice process”, she added.
International organizations brought Krishanthi’s murder into the light and demanded justice. Lance Corporal Somaratne Rajapakse was sentenced to death for the rape and murder Krishanthi and the murders of her mother, her brother and her neighbour who were also killed when they went looking for Krishanthi after she disappeared. He says he only buried the bodies at Chemmani and did not participate in Krishanthi’s rape and murder.
Rajapakse has expressed his willingness to testify in an international investigation into the mass graves, according to a letter sent to President Anura Kumara Dissanayake by his wife. She states that Rajapakse was ready to disclose what he knows about the killings in Jaffna and to name senior military officials allegedly involved in war crimes. She added that her husband was determined to speak the truth about atrocities committed during the war, including those that were allegedly covered up by high ranking officers.
Today, after 29 years, a mother suffers Post Traumatic Stress Disorder when a black pen reminds her of Krishanthi’s murder. She is still searching for her black pen. Our buried memories are haunting us even decades later. Sweet childhood memories vanished during the Eelam war. School days are forgotten by death and pain. Instead of celebrating our children’s school days, we mourn our lost school years. School continues to awake trauma in us. Inner healing of our wounded selves is much needed for many of us who has survived the ethnic war.
Intergenerational trauma is another outcome of the war. Children who have not witnessed war are showing signs and symptoms. Recently I met a little girl whose great grandmother was killed during an aerial attack. Her father was a little boy like her when the incident took place in 1995. Today whenever she hears the sound of a helicopter she runs and hides under a table just as we did during the war. I have been under the school desk many times. When I related my school experience to a Sinhala girl from Colombo, she said that she had also hidden herself under a desk when the Central Bank bombing happened in 1996.
Many children has been traumatised by the war. Once I shared my Navaly village massacre experience with a judge. It happened when I was 15 years old. The judge said her friend, who was 15 years old, had been killed in Maradana bombing while she was returning home from school. I remember the students from my school and all the schools in Sri Lanka who lost their lives during the war.
