Sri Lanka has “vehemently rejected” the appointment of the OHCHR team to conduct the probe into war crimes, reported Colombo Page.

The Ministry of External Affairs is reported to have said that permission for the team to enter the island would not be granted.

UK, US urge Sri Lanka to cooperate with international inquiry at opening of 26th UNHRC session (10 June 2014)

Photograph SL Campaign

"I do think that when the [forthcoming OHCHR] inquiry takes place they will need to probe this question because many Tamils have often spoken about the fact that this is a genocide, and that it has genocidal tendencies - the way in which this war prosecuted.”

"I think all of us in the Panel that were confronted with this question have always raised that there is a real need for a proper investigation when it happens to test this issue [genocide]."

British Foreign Secretary William Hague has stated the UK government will investigate claims that Tamil rape victims are being deported to Sri Lanka were they face torture by security forces, in an interview to the Guardian on Tuesday.

His pledge comes after the Guardian reported that a Tamil asylum seeker faces deportation from the UK for a second time, despite being "beaten, branded, suffocated and rape" on his first deportation. See here for more.

Hague was joined by the Special Envoy for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Angelina Jolie, who also said she was to meet female Tamil refugees in Britain and discuss the issue with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees during the course of the four-day summit.

“The team is working on both ongoing (DR Congo, Syria) and historic (Libiya, Bosnia, Rwanda) cases of sexual violence in conflict—and has recently expanded its remit to cover more countries including Burma..Yet Sri Lanka, where rape has been a weapon of war for many years of brutal civil conflict, is not being examined,” she wrote.

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said today that the Sri Lankan government has been notified of the details of the team that will conduct the investigations into human rights violations.

Claims for land, which has been taken by the military in the northeast, are being made using “false documents”, military spokesperson Ruwan Wanigasooriya said according to Ceylon Today.

He said that the people asking for the return of their land should produce relevant documents.

"The claimants also seem to be politically motivated. There are instances where five people claimed ownership of the same land," he said.

“The terrible human cost for civilians caught in conflict is even greater for women and girls, who often face sexual violence from all sides and have nowhere to turn for protection... The London summit will only be a success if the pledges countries make to end the scourge of rape in war are translated into concrete action.”

“Countries with armed conflicts should make clear they will arrest and prosecute those responsible for sexual violence, including officers in their own troops with command responsibility for the attackers.”

“As an immediate measure, I request you to kindly ensure that India registers the strongest disapproval of the belligerent actions of the Sri Lankan Navy.”