A signature campaign calling for an international accountability mechanism in Sri Lanka to deal with mass atrocities committed during the final stages of the armed conflict came to a close on Thursday.

Over 150,000 signatures had been collected by the campaign organised by the Tamil Action Committee for International Accountability Mechanism (TACIAM), said Professor V. P. Sivanathan.

Thanking those who joined the campaign, Prof Sivananthan stated that the signatures would be sent to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and to the UN Human Rights Council itself.

Speaking at a press conference at the United Nations Human Rights Council, Zeid Hussein said,

“The report draws us closer to the conclusion that crime against humanity and war crim shave apparently been committed by state actors, the LTTE and paramilitary groups.”

Highlighting a “deep mistrust” between victims and the state, and “repeated failures by the state in providing justice,” the Human Rights Chief said that a significant recommendation from the report was the set up of a hybrid court to ensure there is no impunity for crimes of “such grave nature.”

Mr Zeid added, “a purely domestic procedure will not succeed in overcoming decades of broken promises…  it is a reality that Sri Lanka’s criminal justice system is not ready to handle these types of crimes.”

Please find a link to the full report here.

Conclusions of the OISL report:

"The OHCHR investigation contained in this report was born out of the past failure of the Government of Sri Lanka to address accountability for the most serious human rights violations and crimes. Ending the impunity enjoyed by the security forces and associated paramilitary groups, as well as holding to account surviving members of the LTTE, will require political will and concerted efforts to ensure the non-recurrence of these violations and crimes.

Only an international mechanism can address the crimes committed by Sri Lanka, priests and religious leaders of the North-East have said in a letter to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights today.

"Since the end of the armed conflict many of the structural causes of the conflict remain intact and indeed, have been exacerbated under this period of ‘victor’s peace’," said the letter signed by 170 priests.

Highlighting Sri Lanka's recent honouring of former Army Chief General Sarath Fonseka, and appointing of Major General Jegath Dias as chief of staff - both alleged war criminals - the letter said:

A senior Sri Lankan minister has told the BBC that the government will not accept a hybrid court, as suggested by the UN’s human rights office.

"Our stand on war crimes is we need an internationally accepted local inquiry. We are not ready to agree with the international inquiries," Rajitha Senaratne said.

A local mechanism, made up of a series of domestic commissions, including a South Africa-style Truth Commission, will be set up "to clear the name of the country" the minister said.

Asked explicitly whether they would set up a domestic court to investigate crimes against humanity and war crimes, Mr Senaratne said that they would.

"When there is always a conflict like this, what I feel is that war itself is a crime. Always there is violations in a war," he said.

He however suggested that the government could take action against former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, his brother Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and military commanders, if they were found guilty of involvement.

"Where even the president or other commanders or defence secretaries - whoever - is involved, our government is ready to take action," Mr Senaratne said.

Reconciliation in Sri Lanka cannot take place without accountability, said British MPs while calling on the UK government to take a lead in seeking accountability for human rights abuses in Sri Lanka.

Moving a debate Tamil Rights in Sri Lanka in Westminster Hall on Tuesday, James Berry MP, chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils, said "it is beyond sensible dispute that thousands of civilians were killed in [the] no-fire zone."

On Sri Lanka's reaction to the UN Panel of Experts report, Mr Berry said,

"Instead of engaging with the UN report in a meaningful or sensible way, the Sri Lankan Government arrogantly rejected it, describing it as “fundamentally flawed” and “patently biased”. Sri Lanka did nothing to address the alleged human rights abuses at the end of the war. Not a single prosecution was instigated. It is reasonable to surmise that the Sri Lankan Government hoped that the international community would turn the other way."

The Pivithuru Hela Urumaya (PHU) General Secretary and UPFA MP Udaya Gammanpila said that his party would propose an Act of Indemnity to protect Sri Lankan troops from war crimes charges.

Speaking in Sri Lankan parliament on Tuesday, ahead of the release of a United Nations investigation into the mass killings of Tamil civilians, Mr Gammanpilla said:

“The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) report on Sri Lanka will be published tomorrow. If the report calls for war crimes charges to be levelled against our war heroes, we will present an Indemnity Act in parliament to provide them legal immunity”.

“This Act is not something new,” added the MP.

“Even Sri Lanka has implemented it at least thrice to protect our officials. Once it was brought in 1915 by the State Council with regard to the Sinhala, Muslim riots and twice by UNP governments to protect officials from being questioned for any action taken during the 1977 and 1987 riots.”

Mr Gammanpila went on reassure Sri Lankan soldiers that the PHU's Ranaviru Legal Aid Foundation was “ready to protect them” from any war crimes charges.