Sri Lankan government allows BBC to cover LLRC sessions in Jaffna

The Sri Lankan government has given permission to the BBC news service to cover the hearings of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) now being conducted in Jaffna.

The broadcaster said Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa's office has informed them that from now on it is free to cover the LLRC sittings wherever they take place.

The BBC said the Defence Ministry on Wednesday had informed them that they are not allowed traveling to cover the current hearings in Jaffna.

The news agency says the Defence Ministry had blocked them twice before from travelling to northern Sri Lanka to report the public hearings before the Commission appointed by the President.

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

The BBC said that on several recent occasions it had been denied permission to travel to the North beyond the town of Vavuniya.