LLRC action plan to be released this month

The Government is planning to publicise the implementation plan of its key accountability report late this month, a top official said yesterday.

Presidential Secretary Lalith Weeratunga told a meeting of media heads that the committee formed to implement the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) recommendations, which is led by him, is planning to present the implementation mechanism to the parliament at the end of this month.

“We have already met many times since the appointment of the committee and we have discussed ways of implementing the recommendations. We hope to present our plans to the Government as well as the media before the end of June,” he said.

Admitting that some recommendations would take time to implement as they may require Constitutional changes, Weeratunga nonetheless insisted that they would also present a timeline for the process on what can be achieved.  

He went on to comment on the possibility of giving monthly updates to mark the progress of the implementation.

Sri Lanka will face a Universal Progress Review of its post-war reconciliation process by the United Nations in October and Weeratunga expressed confidence that implementation of the LLRC proposals will promote engagement with the international community to build relations.

“We have been told several times by friendly countries to “help them help us.” This means that we have to show progress on implementing the LLRC to convince them as well as the Diaspora of our sincerity.”

Under the US-backed resolution that was passed at the UNHRC in March, Sri Lanka will be up for a full review in 2013 but must present the Human Rights Action Plan in October.

Weeratunga termed the points that were revealed to US Secretary Hilary Clinton by External Affairs Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris as a “mid-way solution” and insisted that no complete plans had yet been revealed.