COLOMBO, Sept. 8 -- September 7 marked 29 years since the Chemmani massacre of 1996, when Sri Lankan soldiers abducted, raped, and murdered Tamil schoolgirl Krishanthi Kumaraswamy and three of her family members who went searching for her.

Krishanthi, an A-Level student at Chundikuli Girls' College in Jaffna, was stopped at the Kaithady Army checkpoint and detained for "questioning". Eleven officers then kidnapped, gang-raped, and killed her, burying her dismembered body in a shallow ditch. Her 16-year-old brother Pranavan, her mother Rasamma, and family friend Kirupakaramoorthy, who went looking for her, were also strangled and buried near the same site.

In 1998, six of the perpetrators were sentenced to death, while three others recei...