The Australian Navy told Sri Lankan asylum seekers to go back to Sri Lanka and die during interviews with asylum seekers, reports Colombo Gazette.

Two Tamil asylum seekers who were interviews by investigative journalist Phil Miller said that they had been told to go back to Sri Lanka and die, by Australian navy officials, who payed people smugglers to turn back.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has offered to assist the government families of those reported missing reports ColomboGazette.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs together with the ICRC delegation in Sri Lanka have held a meeting to discuss an ICRC meeting entitled ‘Needs of the Families of Missing Persons in Sri Lanka: Living with Uncertainty.’

President Maithripala Sirisena said Sri Lanka was overcoming obstacles internationally, while some are making baseless accusations.

Speaking at an event in Polonaruwa, Mr Sirisena said that the government was not being influence, despite of what political opponents were saying.

The president also claimed that he can save former president Mahinda Rajapaksa and those who engaged in the war from the electric chair.

Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said his government was not averse to international participation in the country's touted accountability mechanism, however stressed that "final judgement will be made by the internal judicial system".

The prime minister, who was visiting a temple in Guruvayur, said officials from neighbouring countries such as India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh would be able to participate in discussions on war crimes, alongside representatives from the US and human rights organisations.

Mr Wickremesinghe said Sri Lanka wanted to ensure that those responsible for civilian deaths are held to account, whether they were from the military or the LTTE, adding that the UN said it was possible that up to 40,000 people were killed in the last phase of the war.

Representatives of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will visit Sri Lanka next week for a joint ‘Forensic Audit’ on development projects that amount to US $250 billion launched by the former Rajpaksa regime.

Government Minister Sarath Amunagama told media that the consensual government was in a dilemma as to how capital investment could be raised for the projects, as the previous regime had commenced the project without full financial backing.

Sri Lanka’s former president Mahinda Rajapaksa set up a coordinating office in the wake of announcing that a group of MPs loyal to him will form a new political party.

A large number of parliamentarians loyal to Mahinda Rjapaksa reportedly met at his residence this week to discuss the final details of the new party and finalised the name and party symbol reports Colombo Page.

The office is expected to facilitate the coordination of political affairs and public relations.

The Sri Lankan government on Friday launched a consultations process, the 'Secretariat for Coordinating Reconciliation Mechanisms'.