LLRC report will be made public – Prof. Peiris  [November 02 2011]

President Mahinda Rajapaksa will made Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commissions (LLRC) report public, Minister of External Affairs Prof. G. L. Peiris said.

Prof. Peiris said the President has decided to make the report to be available for public following its release, expected in the next two weeks.

"President Rajapaksa was categorical in saying that the report would be made public. This will be done after the report is submitted to the President," Peiris said.

The Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) was initially scheduled to hand over its report to the President on November 15th.

The LLRC Spokesperson Lakshman Wickremasinghe said they are making arrangements to present the report to the President in the second week of November although no definite has yet been set.

The decision to publicize the report was the prerogative of the President, he said.

The eight-member Commission, appointed by the President in May 2010 to probe the events during the last seven years of the conflict, commenced its sessions last year and has recorded thousands of oral and written submissions from a cross section of society on the period between 2002 and 2009.

The LLRC held its first sittings on August 11, 2010. In November 2010, the President extended its mandate till May 15, 2011.

According to the spokesman the Commission, chaired by the former Attorney General Chitta Ranjan de Silva, has received over 1,000 oral submissions and over 5,000 written submissions.

The government appointed an Inter-Agency Committee headed by the Attorney General of Sri Lanka to facilitate the implementation of the recommendations made by the LLRC during its inquiry.

The LLRC had made recommendations to be taken with regard to detention of suspects, land issues, law and order, administrative and language issues and the socio-economic and livelihood issues.

The Commission had made recommendations to be taken with regard to detention of suspects, land issues, law and order, administrative and language issues and the socio-economic and livelihood issues.

The LLRC has invited the Amnesty International (AI) and the other human right watchdogs, the International Crisis Group (ICG) and Human Rights Watch (HRW) to come before it but they turned down the invitation.