SRI Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa - who was due to arrive in Australia last night - has had a charge laid against him in a Melbourne court accusing him of war crimes in his country's civil war.

Sri Lankan-born Australian Arunachalam Jegatheeswaran filed an indictment against the President yesterday, declaring he was seeking justice for thousands who perished in a series of aerial bombardments and ground attacks on shelters, schools, hospitals, orphanages and community centres.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa, with former admiral Thisara Samarasinghe, now Sri Lanka's high commissioner to Australia. Credit:Reuters

The court move coincides with this week's Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Perth, which the Sri Lankan President is attending. ''People are still suffering because of what he did and I think the world should know,'' Mr Jegatheeswaran told The Age.

''I've seen all of these things,'' he said, having been a volunteer aid worker in Sri Lanka from 2007 to 2009. ''I can't bear that the person who is responsible for all of this - who is the commander-in-chief - is coming to my country and getting off scot-free. I'm asking the highest court of justice in Australia to decide whether he is guilty or not guilty.''