LLRC Action Plan out

By Uditha Jayasinghe

After several weeks of suspense the Government yesterday released the much anticipated Action Plan for implementing the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) report but warned that budgetary allocations could see most steps postponed till next year.

External Affairs Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris told media that the Government has taken efficient steps to put together an Action Plan to implement 285 recommendations contained in the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) report, which deals with root causes of Sri Lanka’s three decade long conflict.

He insisted that the commission appointed by President Mahinda Rajapaksa and headed by his secretary Lalith Weeratunga has completed a comprehensive plan that will implement the recommendations. The Minister also termed the progress made so far as “substantial.”

Weeratunga, who was also at the press briefing, explained that most of the recommendations overlap creating about 135 main recommendations. The commission has compiled actions for each of the recommendations and appointed an entity responsible for its implementation that will be monitored by the commission according to Key Performance Indicators (KPI) also drawn out by commission members.     Taking the recommendation on overseeing investigations into allegations of civilian deaths during the last phase of the war as an example Weeratunga noted that the actions for this are concluding ongoing investigations within 12 months, persecuting any officers found guilty within 24 months and if necessary instigating criminal court proceedings against them also before 24 months are up. The KPI would be seeing the successful conclusion of inquiries, instigating criminal proceedings against possible guilty parties and filing such cases in a court of law.  

The commission, which came up with the action plan within the last two months had also worked extensively worked with ministries and other Government departments to find out what steps they had taken independently to implement recommendations and will continue to support all of them. 

 ”We are willing to engage with other organisations on how these recommendations should be implemented. This is not an iron clad action plan and we are not a policing agency. The Commission will merely monitor progress and assist wherever needed,” he said. 

Implementing recommendations regarding property rights and other politically sensitive issues however may take more time, Weeratunga admitted. Appointing a Land Commission is in the pipeline along with initiating a study on the infringement of property rights and their removal as part of the process to ensure land rights in the north and east.

“Some recommendations that require political steps will be considered under a parliamentary select committee,” Weeratunga stated but stopped short of assuring that the recommendations will be implemented in full without any change.   

The action plan has been uploaded to the Government website and the translated versions of the LLRC report will be out next week.