A memorial known as the “Unextinguishable Lamp,” erected in Jaffna to demand justice for the Chemmani massacre, has been rebuilt after it was vandalised by unidentified individuals.
The monument was found destroyed last week, in an act of vandalism that drew widespread condemnation from local residents, who described it as an attempt to erase Tamil remembrance and suppress calls for justice.
The memorial was first installed at the end of June during a candlelight protest organised by activists and civil society groups. The demonstration, held to demand justice for the victims of the Chemmani mass graves, concluded with the lighting of a flame and the establishment of a memorial at the site. The monument had since become a symbolic space for remembrance and resistance in Jaffna.
Despite the desecration, reconstruction began almost immediately, with community members returning to the site to relight candles and rebuild the structure. By Thursday evening, the memorial had been fully restored.
Local residents said the swift reconstruction reflected the determination of the Tamil community to preserve its memory of the war and the continuing struggle for justice.
The Chemmani mass grave remains one of the most notorious symbols of Sri Lanka’s wartime atrocities. In 1998, a Sri Lankan soldier on trial for the rape and murder of a tamil schoolgirl revealed that hundreds of Tamils killed by the army during its occupation of Jaffna in the mid-1990s had been buried there. Since excavations began, at least 240 human skeletons have been recovered, including the remains of children and infants.
The site was visited by United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk earlier this year, during which he laid flowers before a flame.
