‘Some recommendations may necessitate constitutional amendments’:

Committee assessing LLRC recommendations

‘Int’l community impressed with post-war reconciliation process’:

Chamikara WEERASINGHE

A committee headed by Secretary to the President Lalith Weeratunga is studying recommendations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) report for assessment of challenges in implementing them, External Affairs Ministry Secretary Karunatilleke Amunugama said yesterday.

He said the committee had met a number of times.

It will announce what recommendations could be implemented under the present institutional framework, Amunugama said.

The Lalith Weeratunga committee on LLRC recommendations is expected to declare a realistic strategy to implement them, he said. “Some recommendations need amendments to the constitution.”

The committee has categorised these recommendations for short, medium and long-term implementation, he said.

Asked about recent criticism which some US Senators have levelled against Sri Lanka over non-implementation of recommendations made by the LLRC, Amunugama said Senators may express their personal views, but US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had praised Sri Lanka’s plan to implement the LLRC recommendations during a meeting with External Affairs Minister Prof G L Peiris. Asked if Prof Peiris had presented a document on LLRC implementation procedure to Clinton, Amunugama said: “We did not present any such document. Prof Peiris explained the government’s mechanism to implement the recommendations, which she called “excellent.”

“The process of implementing some recommendations can take time and some even need amendments to the constitution,” he said.

“All these are currently being looked into by the committee appointed to study LLRC recommendations,” Amunugama said.

“The international community has been impressed with Sri Lanka’s post-war reconciliation process right from the start. The government has been able to resettle all internally displaced persons. It has released over 11,000 rehabilitated LTTE cadres,” he said.

There are political problems associated with the LLRC recommendations because of the lack of commitment by political parties, such as, the Tamil National Alliance to arrive at a consensus to find a political solution to the national issue, External Affairs Ministry officials told the Daily News.