At a meeting with university lecturers, Rajapaksa gave a promise in that regard.

The newspaper goes onto say the then foreign minister Mangala Samaraweera’s agreeing to cosponsor the UNHRC proposal in Geneva in 2015 resulted in 56 senior military officers being accused of war crimes and refused permission to enter other countries.

Samaraweera gave the agreement without obtaining permission from president Maithripala Sirisena, and the UNHRC advised the government to establish a special court to try war crimes allegations, the newspaper adds.