Members of the United States Congress called for the formation of a hybrid special court with international judges, prosecutors and lawyers to try war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Sri Lanka, in a letter written to US Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday.

The letter, signed by 11 members of Congress, called for the US to “retain a strong leadership role in promoting accountability, reconciliation and a political settlement” in Sri Lanka and support recommendations from the OISL report.

Former Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa rejected claims that he had agreed to investigate mass atrocities committed on the island and claimed his government was never at risk of facing sanctions, as he denounced the OISL report today.

In a statement released online, Mr Rajapaksa stated that Sri Lanka was never at risk of facing economic sanctions over the refusal to account for the final stages of the armed conflict, which saw tens of thousands of Tamil civilians killed.

“Such measures are very rarely implemented because the country imposing sanctions ends up making a permanent enemy of the people of the country at the receiving end,” said Mr Rajapaksa. “Unilateral sanctions against Sri Lanka was never on the cards during my tenure.”  

Instead the former president said that “during the war, Sri Lanka and the USA had a mutually helpful exchange of information on security matters” and that “throughout my tenure, the main foreign investors in the Sri Lankan long term sovereign bond market and the securities exchange were from America and Europe”. “It is only after I  was voted out of office that these investors started withdrawing their money from Sri Lanka,” he claimed.

Stating that a hybrid court “is not feasible”, he went on to say “if there are allegations of wrongdoing against any member of the armed forces, I strongly believe that those should be tried under the existing Sri Lankan law, under our present courts system and by our judges and our Attorney-General’s department”.

His comments echo those made by current Sri Lankan president Maithripala Sirisena last week, who reiterated "our stand is to have a domestic inquiry”.

TNA parliamentarian M. A. Sumanthiran called for “internationalised prosecutions” for mass atrocities committed in Sri Lanka, as part of an accountability process for the crimes.

Speaking at a panel discussion on Saturday hosted by the Global Tamils Forum (GTF) in London Mr Sumanthiran said the TNA had “no trust in a local judicial mechanism” which is why they are pushing for “internationalised prosecutions”. “One of the most important things is that victims of these crimes must have confidence in these courts and they will not have any confidence in a pure domestic system,” he added.

He stated that this strategy must run parallel with a long-term push for referral to the International Criminal Court, which he believes will eventually come with a “reformed Sri Lankan government”.

Considering ongoing challenges in Sri Lanka, Mr Sumanthiran emphasised the importance of security sector reform, but also the difficulty in achieving it. “The military is the same military, the Terrorist Investigation Department is the same people guilty of serious violations,” he said.

In response to a question concerning the LTTE, he stated the, “LTTE was a product of a problem of majoritarianism” and “the defeat of the LTTE cannot be agreed with because the means used to defeat the LTTE weren’t just to defeat the LTTE, they were to suppress the voice of the Tamil people once and for all.”

He also explained that the TNA was pursuing a dual strategy of both a political solution and accountability, as you could not have one without the other. Mr Sumanthiran noted that the TNA’s leadership was given their mandate by the recent election and that this mandate included seeking a federal structure with maximum devolution of powers with a view to self-determination within a united undivided country.

The JVP said that previous government appointed commissions were a waste of public money, as he criticised former Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa for paving the way for a hybrid court to prosecute war crimes.

The release of the long awaited OHCHR investigation into Sri Lanka (OISL) report last week is a monumental moment for the victims of mass atrocities on the island and all those who continue to work towards seeing justice served. The crucial document, which was mandated by a UN resolution, meticulously outlines the gravity of the crimes perpetrated, and lays down the path towards accountability for them. Clear decisive action must now be taken to follow it.

Sri Lanka's Defence Secretary Karunasena Hettiaratchchi said the country must “be vigilant” due to “talk of local and international investigations” in

Speaking whilst meeting Buddhist monks, Mr  Hettiaratchchi said:

“It is not only fighting the terrorists. It is a broad area. What I meant is when there is silence we can assume that some groups are organising themselves. Therefore, we should be vigilant and be ahead.”

“These days there is talk of local and international investigations,” he added. “That’s why we say we have to be alert.”

The defence secretary also accused Indian fishermen of carrying out “economic terrorism”. He went on to state:

“Usually when a thief breaks into the house and few days later we tend to lose attention thinking that he will not break in again. But we do not work in that manner and we work assuming that there can be a threat."