COLOMBO: UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) Prince Zeid bin Ra’ad al Hussein has said that satisfaction of Sri Lanka’s war victims is important and not the form of the judicial mechanism to be set up to investigate and try war crimes.

Addressing media on Tuesday at the conclusion of his four-day visit to the country, he said it was irrelevant whether a hybrid judicial mechanism or some variant was suitable for the job. The aim should be to give redress to those who suffered during the war, the UN official observed.

The UN rights chief visited war-affected areas and met the country’s leaders, including the chief prelates of the Buddhist clergy.

In reply to a question as to what form the mechanism will take in the light of President Maithripala Sirisena’s assertion that there can be no foreign judges, Zeid said the UN Human Rights Council’s resolution of Oct 1, 2015 did recommend a hybrid mechanism with foreign and Lankan judges, prosecutors and investigators.

The Lankan government was party to the recommendation as a co-sponsor, but it maintained that Colombo had its own preference about the precise form of the mechanism and was looking at various options.Referring to his visits to Jaffna and Trincomalee, Zeid said that while people there saw an improvement in the attitude of the government, the pace of change on the ground was slow.

The Buddhist leaders informed him that there was no need for foreign involvement in an inquiry into allegations of war crimes. The monks had stated that they had no objection to a local inquiry.

Published in Dawn, February 10th, 2016