Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera: “We are working on a timeline and by September we will have in place a credible domestic mechanism.”  

AFP/Colombo

Sri Lanka’s new government said yesterday an investigation into allegations of war crimes would begin by September, amid international pressure to account for atrocities committed during the island’s decades-long separatist conflict.
Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera said the local inquiry into allegations of abuses in the final stages of the war would start by the next UN Human Rights Council session, which meets in Geneva in September.
“We are working on a timeline and by September we will have in place a credible domestic mechanism with foreign technical expertise,” Samaraweera told reporters in Colombo.
The minister did not give details of the new probe, but official sources said it would draw support from UN and other
international experts.
The announcement comes just days after US Secretary of State John Kerry urged the government to ensure accountability for war-time atrocities and work towards ethnic reconciliation, during a visit to the island.
Kerry echoed longstanding demands of ethnic minority Tamils to investigate cases of thousands who went missing or were killed towards the end of the conflict, which claimed  wsome 100,000 lives between 1972 and 2009.
At the ballot box in January, President Maithripala Sirisena unseated long-time strongman Mahinda Rajapakse who drew international condemnation over his refusal to investigate alleged military abuses.
Rajapakse insisted that security forces did not kill a single civilian while fighting Tamil Tigers who were known for their trade mark suicide bombings.
The UN, backed by the US, has been investigating possible war crimes during the conflict for more than a year.
In February, however, the UN postponed its report at Colombo’s request to allow more time for Sri Lanka to complete its own investigation.
The government will also expand the investigations into those reported missing during the war.
A government statement said that four teams will be appointed to the Presidential Commission Investigating Cases of Missing Persons (PCICMP) to conduct investigations into
future deliberations.
The chairman of the commission, retired judge Maxwell Paranagama, said the four teams will be appointed this week.
He said the appointments were in accordance with the recommendations made in an interim report which was submitted to President Sirisena. “The necessity of appointing these groups has been highlighted in this interim report and information relating to the groups has already been given to the president,”the statement quoted Paranagama as saying.
These four teams will investigate about 16,000 complaints, according to the chairman.
The three-member commission, investigating cases of missing persons, headed by Paranagama, had been given the authority to conduct inquiries and investigations into the alleged abductions or disappearances that occurred from 1983 to 2009 and submit a report to the president.
Most people were reported missing during the period of the war between Tamil Tiger rebels and the military. The rebels were defeated in May 2009 after nearly 30 years of war.