The former Sri Lankan president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, and the former defence secretary, his brother, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa on Monday signed a petition against a war crimes court in Sri Lanka.

The UNP and the Sri Lanka Freedom party are in agreement that there would be no foreign judges in a local judicial mechanism to look into alleged violations of international humanitarian law, reports dailymirror.lk.

Speaking to press, the government spokesperson Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe, said,

“At the interview the President said in no uncertain terms that there would be no foreign judges in the local judicial mechanism that would be appointed to look into alleged violations of international humanitarian law.”

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, met with family members of the disappeared who were staging a protest as he arrived in Jaffna on Sunday.

The family members, who were holding photographs of their loved ones who had disappeared, were outside the Chief Minister of the Northern Province’s office as the UN Human Rights chief arrived.

“They could have shown us our children or they could have given us a decision,” said the weeping mother of a disappeared son. “They must give us an answer today. They have to give us our children back.”

 
The UN Human Rights chief discussed the “challenges” faced by the Tamil people, in talks with the Chief Minister of the Northern Provincial Council C. V. Wigneswaran on Sunday.

Speaking to reporters UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said he held a "constructive" meeting with the chief minister, adding,

“Discussions very much focussed on the challenges the province faces but also the plans and the achievements in connection with this region and the people who aspire to see more information in terms of those detained and those missing as well as the issue of the release of land”.

“These discussions will continue of course in the course of today tomorrow and in Colombo with the highest officials of the state,” he added.

Justice Wigneswaran also handed the High Commissioner a list of 4,000 people who have been listed as missing since the end of the armed conflict, alongside dates and places they were last seen.