The setting up of an eight member commission headed by Chitta Ranjan de Silva, Chairman, which also includes two Tamilians was announced in a statement issued by the Presidential Secretariat.
Sri Lanka today announced constitution of a 'reconciliation commission' to probe rights abuses during the last seven years of war with the Tamil Tigers as pressure mounted from international groups.
The setting up of an eight member commission headed by Chitta Ranjan de Silva, Chairman, which also includes two Tamilians was announced in a statement issued by the Presidential Secretariat and comes as Colombo observes a year of its forces total victory over LTTE.
The three decade war ended this day when Sri Lnakan Army launched their final assault on the Tamil Tigers killing their supremo Vellupillai Prabhakaran.
'Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation' Commission constituted yesterday will report on the lessons to be learnt from the events in the period, February 2002 to May 2009, a Presidential Secretariat statement said today.
The appointment of this Commission follows cabinet approval to a memorandum by President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
He said setting up of the commission should be seen as having regard to the "common aspirations of all we have collectively resolved that our people are assured an era of peace, harmony and prosperity."
"It has become necessary that while we as an independent and proud nation of multi-ethnic polity undertake a journey of common goals in a spirit of co-operation, partnership and friendship
We also learn from this recent history lessons that would ensure that there will be no recurrence of any internecine conflict in the future.
I am of the opinion that it is in the interest of public welfare, to appoint a Commission of Inquiry for the purposes hereinafter mentioned," Rajapaksa said in his note of observation.
It states that it has been apparent for quite some time to the government, that the conflict situation due to the very brutality and long duration of the violence perpetrated against Sri Lanka, would have caused great hurt and anguish in the minds of the people.
This required endeavours for rehabilitation and the restoration of democratic governance complimented by measures for reconciliation, the President's office said. The commission has been asked to report back to the president within six months from the date of appointment - 15th May, 2010.
It is also aimed at expressing their attendant concerns and to recommend measures to ensure that there will be no recurrence of such a situation.
"The Commission has been charged with reporting whether any person, group or institution directly or indirectly bears responsibility in this regard," it said.
It is also charged with reporting on measures to be taken to prevent the recurrence of such concerns in the future and promote further national unity and reconciliation among all communities.
The cabinet noted that the President had sanctioned Sri Lanka's Permanent Representative in the UN to mention in his remarks at the UN Security Council Interactive briefing on June 5, 2009 that the Government was in the process of initiating a domestic mechanism for fact finding and reconciliation, the statement said.
This statement (in the UN) stemmed from the Government's commitment to the promotion and protection of human rights, as consistently articulated and affirmed by Sri Lanka at Sessions of the Human Rights Council, the President office statement said.
Rajapaksa informed the cabinet that the commission is being established in order to accomplish this task, it said.
He said for this it has become necessary to set in motion a mechanism which will provide a historic bridge between the past of a society characterised by inflicted strife and a future society founded on the continued recognition of democracy and peaceful co-existence and the affording of equal opportunities for all Sri Lankans as guaranteed by the Constitution.
The president informed the cabinet that the Commission on Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation has been influenced in part by the South African experience and the Iraq Inquiry of the UK.
The members of the commission are: Chitta Ranjan de Silva (chairman) Amrith Rohan Perera, Mohamed Thahir Mohamed Jiffry, Karunaratna Hangawatta, Chandirapal Chanmugam, HMGS Palihakkara, Manohari Ramanathan and Maxwell Parakrama Paranagam.
In his observation note on the appointment of the commission, Rajapaksa said an opportune moment has arrived to reflect on the conflict phase and the sufferings the country has gone through as a whole.
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