Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena claimed his government was no longer under pressure to investigate allegations of war crimes, in an interview with the Sunday Times this week, as he once again rejected the notion of international participation in an accountability mechanism.

The Sri Lankan government must ensure that transitional justice also includes justice for war crimes, stated Syed Kamall Conservative MEP for London.

Responding to questions from the British Tamils Forum, Mr Kamall said that EU member states noted more had to be done to ensure accountability on the island.

Transitional justice is indeed about rehabilitation and reconstruction, but also about achieving justice for war crimes,” said Mr Kamall. “The EU Member States have in their most recent Council conclusions on Sri Lanka welcomed progress made, but also noticed the need for more to be done.”

Exiled Tamil victims who survived the final stages of the armed conflict on the island have called for international judges to participate in an accountability mechanism for mass atrocities, in a new report by the International Truth and Justice Project.

Launched on Friday, the report clearly identified the top priority of the victims as criminal accountability, including “the prosecution of those who were in positions of superior and command responsibility”.

The victims stated they would testify by video to a special court in Sri Lanka only if international judges were involved and their identities protected.

“These findings have huge implications for the design of the transitional justice mechanisms in Sri Lanka,” said Yasmin Sooka. “It’s important that thousands of Tamils who’ve fled Sri Lanka have a voice, especially as some are the only known surviving witnesses to alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity”.

Watch a live stream of the International Truth and Justice Project report launch in London below.

Reports of the arbitrary detention and beating of a British Tamil citizen that arrived in Sri Lanka to visit his mother have emerged.

Mr Velauthapilai Renugaruban was beaten and forcefully arrested by two men who entered his family home in Jaffna on 2^nd of June. The men informed the family that they had come to arrest Mr Renugaruban on suspicion of assisting LTTE activities in the UK. Neither an arrest warrant nor identification was provided by the two men, who dragged him out of the house and took him away in a van.

Though an official torture plea has not been extracted from Mr Renugaruban, the detainee's family and representative lawyer in Colombo claim he has been tortured in custody.

A day after Mr Renugaruban was arrested, two men alleging to be representatives of the British High Commission, visited the detainee’s mother at her family house in Jaffna, advising the family to confess that they were LTTE members so to help them negotiate Mr Renugaruban’s release. When asked for identification the two me failed to produce documents.

In response to the detention, Mr Renugaruban’s family approached the British government and human rights activists, who inquired into the case. Upon contact, the president’s advisor and Governor of the Eastern Province Mr Austin Fernando managed to locate the detained British citizen and confirm that he was in Sri Lankan police custody.  Shortly after the inquiries made by international officials, Mr Renugaruban was produced in front of the Jaffna Magistrates Court and is now officially detained until 17 June under charges of an alleged assault incident. The commander of the Sri Lanka’s Security Forces stationed in Jaffna, Major General Mahesh Senanayake, is confirmed to have contacted Mr Renugaruban’s family.