Sri Lanka’s foreign minister said today the government did not want “outside bodies” to do a criminal investigation into the mass atrocities detailed in the UN report, which was released yesterday.

Speaking to press in Colombo, Mangala Samaraweera stressed the “burden” of a criminal investigation was on Sri Lanka and the country will have to initiate legal proceedings where sufficient evidence existed.

The minister said the government is yet to finalise whether international judges or prosecutors will be part of an accountability mechanism, as recommended by the UN’s human rights chief Zeid Hussain.

“The prosecutors, judges, these are the things we have to finalise. We have slight differences in opinions about how it should be done, but I think after the consultations with the people we could find a point of convergence,” he said.

He pointed out that there will be talks with the UN on the establishment of the mechanisms, but stressed the government will not be told what to do.

“It’s not like a school boy going to the principal with your essay. We sit down as equals and thrash things out,” he said.

Mr Samaraweera said the government would initiate the process to establish a domestic mechanism from September 30, when Sri Lanka will be debated at the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

The process would start with a consultation process from mid-October till the end of January, the minister said, adding that the government had informed the Human Rights Council that they aimed to put all mechanisms in place within 18 months.

The minister said those who expected a “blood-curdling” report on human rights violations were “extremely disappointed”.

“Instead we have here a well crafted, sober report, which gives a narrative of some of the human rights violations or war crimes which may have happened during this time, and it is up to us to ensure investigate and ensure that justice is doled out and to ensure that such things don’t happen again. And as the report itself says a couple of times, the report is not a criminal investigation but a human rights investigation, and it is also very balanced and are happy to say it acknowledged the great strides of the new government and is also very, very balanced in reporting the excesses of the LTTE,” Mr Samaraweera stated.

He said the most urgent need was to address the trust deficit between the Tamil, Muslim and Sinhalese communities on the island.

“It is really in our hands to come up with institutions which are credible enough to address the grievances of the communities concerned and could go a long way to address the trust deficit.”

Mr Samaraweera highlighted the cases of Prageeth Eknaligoda, TNA MP N Raviraj and Lasantha Wikramatunga as examples where the government had initiated action.

“Whoever is behind these ghastly killings will be dealt with by the law, but of course we would also like to find out who gave the orders to do so, because we know that Sri Lanka always had a very disciplined, a very professional army and I don’t think anyone in the army had any need to kill Eknaligoda at all, so what is of more importance is about the command structure, who gave those orders.”

In response to a question whether he intended to create laws to hold accountable those who gave orders, the minister said he believes they should.