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.

Asked what his gut reaction was to the kind of image Sri Lanka was presenting, Mr Senaratne said:

"Even as a cabinet minister in the then government, I suggested to the then government, immediately go for a truth commission, let the war crimes charges be set up against us. But the then president didn't accept my advice. If we had had the truth commission at that moment, this would never have happened."

"The same thing happened in the conflict. Not only in Sri Lanka, but in every conflict, these things have happened. It is our duty to clear the image of our country," he added.

In a muted response, to the report released this morning, the Sri Lankan government said it "takes note" of the report released by the UN's human rights office and the recommendations within it.

In a short statement released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sri Lanka highlights that the OISL report "recognises fully that this Report represents a human rights investigation and not a criminal investigation".

It said it would remain "firm in its conviction to take all possible measures to ensure non-recurrence" and "will ensure dialogue and wide consultations with all stakeholders especially the victims of conflict".