Sri Lanka will take advice only from international bodies says PM

The Sri Lankan government will only take advice from international bodies on how to set up a domestic inquiry, the country's prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, was quoted as saying by the Daily Mirror, a day after the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights' Investigation into Sri Lanka (OISL) report, calling for a hybrid special court to be set up to investigate war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the final stages of the armed conflict, was released.

"Only thing Sri Lanka need do was to take advice on modalities for setting up the court (from international bodies) and stick to a domestic investigation on the alleged human rights violations; and not involve any international bodies," the paper quoted Mr Wickremesinghe as saying, during an anniversary event for the birth of the former UNP leader, J R Jayawardene.

Criticising Sri Lankan groups calling for an amnesty and the passage of an indemnity bill, Mr Wickremesinghe said, “passing and implementing an Indemnity Bill would mean pardoning persons who had committed crimes."

"Why should we rush to bring in legislation to pardon criminals when we have done nothing wrong and when no one has accused us of doing wrong?"

"The UNHRC had not said that Sri Lanka had committed war crimes but only made allegations," he reportedly further said, adding that the upcoming UNHRC resolution on the OISL report "should not be publicised but rather diligently turned in Sri Lanka's favour".

Praising the late Mr Jayawardene's handling of issues diligently whilst in office, Mr Wickremesinghe reportedly further added that "Mr Jayawardene’s style of handling things carefully had helped the country to remain undivided."

J R Jayawardene was the Sri Lankan president and UNP leader at the time of the 1983 pogrom against the Tamil people, commonly referred to as Black July, when over 3000 Tamils were killed by state backed mobs and security forces, and Tamil businesses and homes were destroyed.