He told a religious function in Peradeniya yesterday (09) that he was totally against bringing down judges to the country.

Showing to his audience a copy of the newspaper in question, he described it as misleading and provocative.

The president accused the media of falling low in their quality and expressed concern over their conduct.

Highly placed sources

The report by ‘Divaina’, which he described as a newspaper with his friends in the editorial, has been written by its chief defence reporter Keerthi Warnakulasuriya.

Quoting highly placed sources, it claimed a hybrid court would start functioning in February 2017.

The president responded by noting that the UNHCR-adopted proposal last year made no mention about a war tribunal.

He said, however, it was the government’s responsibility to resolve problems of the northern Tamils, but that did not mean a division of a country, gagana.lk reports.