'Mechanism must be domestic' says Sri Lankan president

Sri Lanka's president, Maithripala Sirisena on Wednesday reiterated that a justice mechanism aimed at delivering accountability for the war crimes and crimes against humanity documented in the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Investigation into Sri Lanka (OISL) must be domestic.

In an interview to the New York Times, Mr Sirisena, who was in New York addressing the UN General Assembly, said, "the mechanism must be domestic".

The paper further quoted a presidential aide as saying that "Sri Lanka does not allow foreign lawyers to practice in its courts", and that "it was not possible for the country to set up a new international court without amending the Constitution, which would be extremely difficult politically."

A resolution, co-sponsored by Sri Lanka and adopted by the UN Human Rights Council on Thursday calls for the participation of foreign judges, lawyers and prosecutors in any domestic mechanism.

“I took over a country isolated by the international community,” Mr Sirisena added. “The main challenge I faced was to win over the international community. I believe these efforts have borne fruit.”