Implementing the LLRC recommendations

The government has unveiled its road map for carrying out those recommendations of the Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) hitherto unimplemented. The Cabinet approved the ‘National Plan of Action to implement the recommendations of the LLRC’ (NAP) on Wednesday and it was made public at a press conference on Thursday.

The LLRC was appointed by President Mahinda Rajapaksa more than two years ago, in accordance with the Commissions of Inquiry Act, to look back at the conflict Sri Lanka suffered and to look ahead and see what needed to be done to ensure an era of healing and peace building in the country.

External Affairs Minister Professor G. L. Peiris

Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella

Secretary to the President Lalith Weeratunga

In November 2011 it submitted its report, wherein it made recommendations regarding the correction of crimes and human rights violations, the resettlement of displaced people and the redressal of the grievances of the various ethnic groups which make up the population.

The Cabinet appointed a committee headed by the Secretary to the President Lalith Weeratunga to oversee the implementation of these recommendations. The committee categorised the 285 recommendations in the report into broad groups, pertaining to National Policy, the final phase of the conflict, human rights and national security concerns, and resettlement, development and reconciliation - to be implemented on long, medium and short term basis.

Short-term recommendations

It found that many of the recommendations have already been implemented, while some are in the process of implementation. According to Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella, the Cabinet spokesman, the government has already executed 60 percent of the short-term recommendations.

In confirmation, External Affairs Minister Professor G. L. Peiris said that 98 percent of the work pertaining to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) 90 percent of that connected to the re-integration into society of ex-combatants and almost all demining activity had been completed, while all the High Security Zones except for Palaly had been removed.

The NAP provides a time-table for put into action the various uncompleted LLRC guidelines, in the areas of international humanitarian issues arising from the final phase of the conflict, Human Rights, Land Return and Resettlement, Restitution/ Compensatory Relief and Reconciliation.

The scheme of implementation of each recommendation is broken down by Activity (the tasks to be carried out), Key Responsible Agency (the government establishments tasked with execution), Key Performance Indicator (the variable to be used as the index of success of each task) and Time-frame.

The time-scales for carrying out the activities relevant to each recommendation vary from six months to three years; in the case of the tasks being sequential, the period for implementing the corresponding directive can be as long as five years.

Committee chairman Weeratunga told the press that there would be follow-up discussions with the agencies involved and vigorous monitoring of progress. He added that the LLRC report, which was in English will be published next week, translated into Sinhala and Tamil.

The NAP deals with a raft of issues, from Human Rights violations to problems of land settlement. However, international media attention has been drawn mainly to the planned tasks relevant to the international humanitarian issues arising from the final phase of the conflict.

The LLRC found that, while there was no military policy of deliberately targeting civilians, there had been ‘considerable civilian casualties’ and it urged the government to investigate incidents which might point to ‘wrongful conduct’.

The NAP attempts to deal with this suggestion are being criticised by the foreign media, by non-governmental organisations and by the Opposition.

Much of this criticism was related to the cumulative five-year time-frames of some sequential tasks. For example, Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran was dismissive, calling it a plan prepared for ‘foreign consumption’ and the time-frame an attempt to drag on the issue so that international attention would be lost.

British Channel 4

However, Minister Rambukwella said that the NAP showed that ‘the government has dispelled all doubts about its sincerity in trying to implement the recommendations’, while committee chairman Weeratunga said it showed that the government was keen to move the process forward.

Of special significance in this context is the six months’ time-table given to the army to complete ‘follow up action’ over allegations contained in the British Channel 4 television documentary that members of security forces had killed surrendering cadres of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in 2009, which shows that the government is willing to go the extra mile.

Certainly, the announcement of the NAP will be a severe blow to critics of the government, particularly to those of the hegemonic ideology of the Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora.

Even before the USA tabled its resolution at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR), calling on the Sri Lanka government to implement these proposals, these critics had been harping on the government’s alleged intention of ignoring the LLRC report.

Now it appears that the wind has been taken from their sails. Tired, lack-lustre separatist politicians must now restrict their criticism to jaded comments about the whole process being a sham.

The cynical Diasporic hacks will have to adapt to using ‘time-frame’ as an obscenity in conjunction with ‘cover-up’. The rest of the world and, it is hoped, the international Sri Lankan Tamil community, will await full evidence of the implementation or otherwise of the NAP before making a judgement.