GEMUNU AMARASINGHE/AP President Mahinda Rajapaksa studying the report of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission, at his residence in Colombo on November 29, 2011.
SRI LANKAN President Mahinda Rajapaksa has a choice to make. Before him is the voluminous “Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) report”. The question on many lips is “What will he do with it?” His decision on the report – or procrastination over it – will decide the direction his country takes and what happens to it in international fora. The issue at hand is disarmingly simple. What is Rajapaksa prepared to concede to the Tamils to bring them back into the national mainstream? The LLRC report, in large parts, offers him the way out. It recognises that a political solution is imperative to address the root cause of the conflict and wants the government to provide the leadership to a political process that will ensure sustainable peace and security.
The LLRC was constituted by the President on May 15, 2010, soon after United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's visit to Sri Lanka and the decision to conduct a U.N. probe into the last stages of the Eelam War. Former Attorney General C.R. De Silva acted as the Chairman of the Commission.
INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS and the temporary structures that accommodate them in the Arunachalam camp at Manik Farm in northern Sri Lanka, an August 2009 photograph. The LLRC suggests ways to tackle the issues of resettlement and genuine reconciliation, including completion of the process of the return of the refugees to their homes and restoration of normal life in the war-affected areas.
R. SAMPANTHAN, LEADER of the Tamil National Alliance. He says the findings of the LLRC offend the dignity of the victims of war.
“The present situation provides a great window of opportunity to forge a consensual way forward towards reconciliation through a political settlement based on devolution of power. It recognises that a political solution is imperative to addressing the root cause of the conflict and notes that the government should provide leadership to a political process which must be pursued for the purpose of establishing a framework for ensuring sustainable peace and security in the post-conflict environment,” he said. Full Story>>>
