No judgment on LLRC report before its release -US

The United States will not have any kind of judgment on the report of the Lesson Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) until its release, a United States State Department spokesperson said.

The US would wait until the report is released to decide whether it is sufficient, State Department Spokesperson Mark Toner said. The report is expected to be released in November. In May 2010, President Mahinda Rajapaksa appointed the eight-member Commission to report on the lessons to be learnt from the events in the period between Feb 2002 and May 2009, their attendant concerns and to recommend measures to ensure that there will be no recurrence of such a situation. The Commission is chaired by the former Attorney General Chitta Ranjan de Silva.

In November 2010, President Rajapaksa extended the mandate of the Commission by six months in view of the large number of persons from Sri Lanka and abroad still to give evidence before it. Since then the Commission had regular public hearings in Colombo, Vavuniya, Batticaloa and Kilinochchi. This included field visits to meet people directly affected by the conflict. In October 27, 2010 the Inter-Agency Committee (IAC) was established by a Cabinet Paper to implement the recommendations of the LLRC through practical measures and to strengthen the related processes that are already underway.

On September 13, 2010, the LLRC submitted its interim recommendations. They were based on extensive testimony received by the LLRC during its interaction with affected civilians following field visits to several locations in the conflict-affected areas.

Following recommendations of the IAC, President Rajapaksa appointed a special committee to study the cases of detained LTTE suspects and expedite legal actions where necessary. The government has taken action to release lands in the High Security Zones (HSZs) in the country in keeping with the recommendations of the Committee.