Sirisena says no to foreign judges in Lanka war crimes probe

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has ruled out the possibility of involving foreign judges in the proposed mechanism to probe allegations of war crimes aginst the government troops and the LTTE.
"There can be discussions at any place but as long as I will be the President I will not allow foreign judges to operate in this country. I will not allow anything against the independence and the sovereignty of this country," Sirisena said while addressing a gathering of Buddhist monks near here.
The UN Human Rights Council had adopted a resolution co-sponsored by Sri Lanka which called for an international investigation with foreign judges prosecutors and investigators.

Both Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe have said that the Lankan constitution does not permit foreign judges to operate in the country.
Tamil groups and international rights groups demand an international investigation claiming the Sri Lankan judicial system is incapable of delivering justice to the victims of rights abuses blamed on both government and the LTTE.
The UN has estimated that 40,000 people died, many of them civilians, during Sri Lanka's civil war that lasted nearly three decades.
It was under Mahinda Rajapaksa's tenure that the Lankan forces defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the separatist group that waged armed insurgency against the government.