Colombo Gazette reported the prime minister as saying,
“No one can put pressure on us and no one has put pressure on us”.He went on to state that Sri Lanka would not be joining the ICC and reports of mass atrocities, as outlined in a UN report earlier this year, would be addressed through a domestic accountability mechanism.
Earlier this year the Coalition for the International Criminal Court launched a campaign calling on Sri Lanka to join the international court and “signal to its citizens and the international community that it is ready to break away from impunity and its violent past”.
The issue was also brought up at the UN Human Rights Council, with countries such as Estonia and Switzerland urging Sri Lanka to ratify the Rome Statute as a guarantee against non-recurrence.
Sri Lanka has so far refused.
