Witness tells LLRC:

Provide facilities to returned civilians

Suraj A. Bandara

People returning to the North and East to settle down should be provided with all facilities by the Government while private sector participation should be strengthened in the reconciliation efforts in the war affected areas, Attorney-at-Law and former Presidential Spokesman Hareem Peiris said before the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliations Commission ( LLRC) yesterday.

The Commission chaired by former Attorney General Chitta Ranjan de Silva met at the Lakshman Kadirgamar Centre to inquire and report whether any person, group, or institution directly or indirectly bear responsibility to the conflict.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa appointed the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission to report on the lessons to be learnt from the events between February 21, 2002 to May 19, 2009.

Peiris emphasized that a medium term approach is needed in the North and East to win the hearts and minds of the people.

This can be done by engaging with the political and civil leadership of the Tamil and Muslim communities there. These communities can be made true stakeholders and partners in the progress in the new post war Sri Lanka.

He said the implementation of the 13th Amendment is needed in the North and East as in other parts of the country. Elected Tamil politicians in the North and East should be encouraged to represent their people. Military personnel should be removed from political positions in the area, he said.

"The withdrawal of the emergency law should be followed without leaving Sri Lanka as the only peaceful country with emergency law being practised. Since the war is already won we need to win the hearts of the people in the densely Tamil populated areas," Peiris said.

Peiris said that education and public administration reforms should ensure that Sri Lanka's future generations and public service should certainly be multi-lingual.

Recruitment of more ethnic minorities into the public service and security services to be deployed in the North and East is critical. In most construction projects in these areas most workers are from the sourthern part of the country. Therefore, recruiting labour from the same region is mandatory in the reconciliation process, he said.

Strengthening individual human rights and fundamental and democratic personal freedoms is essential in post war reconciliation and nation building process, Peiris further said.