Sri Lanka President extends mandate of Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission

Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa has issued instructions to extend the term of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission by a period of six months, Sri Lanka media reported.

The Media Advisor of the LLRC Lakshman Wickremasinghe told media that the term of the LLRC was to expire at the end of November, but will now be able to conduct its hearings until May 2011. He said that the extension was made due to the requests that had been submitted to grant more time for them to provide their testimonies to the LLRC.

The government has also appointed an Advisory Committee in order to implement the recommendations of the report released by the LLRC.

President Rajapaksa in May 2010 appointed the eight-member Commission to report on the lessons to be learnt from the events in the period from 21st February 2002 to 19th May 2009. The Commission is chaired by the former Attorney General Chitta Ranjan de Silva.