JAFFNA, Sri Lanka, Oct. 23, 2026 — Lawyers representing families of the disappeared have asked the Jaffna Magistrate’s Court to examine whether the archaeologist leading the Chemmani excavation deliberately removed the term “mass grave” from his latest report on the site. The motion, filed on Thursday, concerns the third interim report by Professor Raj Somadeva of the University of Kelaniya and his colleague Anusha Wanninayake. The report, titled “Forensic Archaeological Excavation in Chemmani,

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka— Kavindran Kodeeswaran told Parliament on Thursday that the archaeologist’s new report on the Chemmani excavation dates the dead to about 50 years ago, rather than to 1995 and 1996. The report gives no date for any burial. He also said the shoes and sandals recovered from the grave, and the photographs taken of them, had been left out of the report. A photograph of a shoe from the grave is printed on page 13. Mr. Kodeeswaran, the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi member for Ampara

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka’s public security minister told Parliament that the Criminal Investigation Department is investigating a complaint over the killing of 186 Tamil villagers outside Batticaloa in 1990, but he gave no indication that investigators had questioned the army officer the complaint accuses. The minister, Ananda Wijepala, was replying to questions submitted on Aug. 6 by Shanakiyan Rasamanickam, a Tamil member of Parliament from Batticaloa, under Standing Order 27(2), which