Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse has ordered a new investigation into the disappearance of thousands of people during an ethnic war, which ended four years ago.
The announcement comes just days before UN human rights chief Navi Pillay is due to visit the island.
Pillay will be visiting Sri Lanka amid international criticism of Colombo's human rights record during the war against Tamil separatists, the Daily Times reports.
According to the report, Rajapakse appointed a retired judge to head a three-member panel to investigate cases of persons from the northern and eastern provinces who went missing during the war.
A statement from his office said that the president indicated that the inquiries are being conducted in the interest of public security and well-being and in order to determine what measures should be taken to prevent such incidents, the report added.
