LLRC eyes 15 May deadline

Sri Lanka's Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) is targeting the completion of its report to be handed over to President Mahinda Rajapaksa by 15 May.

LLRC Media Spokesperson Lakshman Wickremasinghe told the media that the Commission has commenced preparing the first draft.

The draft, according to Wickremasinghe, is being prepared on the evidence received and analysed by the LLRC.

According to him, expert knowledge had been required in processing certain evidence.

The LLRC has held public sittings in the districts of Jaffna, Batticaloa, Mannar, Trincomalee, Vavuniya, Matara, Ampara, Moneragala, Galle, Matara, Puttalam, and Anuradhapura. The Commission concluded its public sittings last month.

President Rajapaksa in May 2010 appointed the eight-member Commission to report on the lessons to be learnt from the events during the period from 21 February 2002 to 19 May 2009. The Commission is chaired by the former Attorney General Chitta Ranjan de Silva.

From the evidence the Commission gathered so far, the LLRC has suggested that immediate administrative measures be taken to ease the lives of the resettled Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and all people living in the former war-battered areas. (www.colombopge.com)