While Sri Lanka’s friends urge a domestic investigation into war crimes committed during the final months of the island’s war as a way of fending of an international probe, a defiant President Mahinda Rajapaksa made clear Friday there will be nothing of the sort.

See reports by the BBC and other agencies.

The rank of President’s Counsel (PC) in Sri Lanka – originally Queen’s Counsel (QC), as it is in UK – is awarded to the most senior lawyers who are experts in a particular field. The title refers to those considered sufficiently eminent as to be appointed to represent the head of state.

According to Sri Lanka’s constitution, PCs are those lawyers who have “reached eminence in the profession and have maintained high standards of conduct and professional rectitude.”

In the light of President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s categorical refusal to investigate war crimes by Sri Lanka’s military, this is what US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia, Robert Blake, had to say during his visit earlier this month (see AFP’s report here):

From the Sunday Times, May 30:

Rehearsals for the Victory Day parade held on Friday began two weeks ago. Among those rehearsing were a group of 23 newly-recruited policemen from Jaffna, six of whom were women constables.

On the eve of the parade they were told, that due to security reasons, they had been dropped from the parade, but if they wished they could witness the parade.

Daily Mirror's cartoon Friday May 27, 2011

Sri Lanka on Thursday withdrew the on-arrival free visa facility for Indian tourists.

Sri Lanka's announcement of the appointment of yet another commission to investigate human rights abuses should come as no surprise. Following the release of report by the UN expert panel, calls for an international, independent inquiry into the final stages of the conflict are gaining momentum on a global level.

This new commission, like its predecessors, including the infamously impotent Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) is a farce. Its announcement is a insolent retort at the UN report and all those advocating accountability, as well as another of Sri Lanka's habitual ploys to buy time for international attention to fade.

The United Nations has signed a ‘routine’ agreement with Sri Lanka so that resources can be accessed when needed for peacekeeping.

This is despite 20% of a Sri Lankan peacekeeping force in Haiti being sent back in 2007 after UN investigations confirmed reports of sexual exploitation of children, and there having been no prosecutions against the soldiers once repatriated.

Sri Lanka on Monday began compulsory military-led training for thousands of university entrants, despite a Supreme Court stay, and protests by opposition-backed student unions that called it the government’s latest move to militarise the country.

At the conclusion of the visit to Delhi this week by Sri Lanka’s External Affairs Minister G. L. Peiris, the two governments issued a joint statement which set out a range of bilateral policy.

However, no sooner had Peiris returned to Colombo, Sri Lankan officials were backpedaling from any commitments he may have given.