Lanka's domestic war crimes probe to get underway next month

Sri Lanka will begin next month its domestic probe into the alleged human rights violations during the final stages of decades-long war with the LTTE to meet the UN deadline, President Maithripala Sirisena said today.
"We will start the work of the local mechanism by next month," he said.
The probe would be conducted in line with the local laws, Sirisena told reporters.
Sirisena said that his government would welcome UN Human Rights Council guidance on its own mechanism.
"The guilty would be dealt with local laws," he said.
The Sirisena government, which unseated long-time strongman Mahinda Rajapaksa in the January polls, pledged a credible domestic mechanism rather than the UN rights body dictated international mechanism to investigate alleged war crimes committed by both government troops and the LTTE during the military conflict in 2009.

The new government is of the view that since Sri Lanka is not a signatory to the Rome statute on international jurisdiction to war crimes, the island would execute justice through its national independent judicial mechanism.

The former Rajapaksa regime was subjected to three successive UNHRC resolutions which called for an international investigation into rights violations.
Rajapaksa drew international condemnation over his refusal to investigate alleged military abuses. His government had refused to cooperate citing it as an attack on Sri Lanka's sovereignty.
The UN, backed by the US, has been investigating possible war crimes during the conflict for more than a year. In February however, the UN postponed its resolution at the government's request to allow more time for Sri Lanka to complete its own investigation.

Sirisena said it was mandatory for Sri Lanka to show progress by September.