Sri Lanka's reconciliation commission to hold public hearings in Trincomalee

Giving the opportunity for the conflict-affected people in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka to present their accounts of war, the commission probing the events that took place during the final stages of war will hold their public sessions in Trincomalee next month.

Sri Lanka's Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) will commence its next open public hearings in Trincomalee in December 2010 to obtain the views of the people in Trincomalee district.

According to the government media the LLRC is to conduct public hearings at the Trincomalee Kachcheri on Friday 3rd December, Muttur Divisional Secretary's Office on Saturday, 4th December, and Kuchchaweli Divisional Secretary's Office on Sunday, 5th December.

The reconciliation commission appointed by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has previously held public hearings in the war-battered towns of Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Vavuniya, and Mullaitivu in Northern Province and Batticaloa in Eastern Province.

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 government earlier this month extended the mandate of the LLRC by six months since a large number of witnesses from Sri Lanka and abroad is yet to give evidence before the Commission.

The Commission encourages individuals and organizations to send all written representations to the LLRC office on or before December 31, 2010 to provide adequate time for it to analyze and synthesize contents, and identify key issues that need further study and deliberations, before finalizing its Report.

From the evidence the Commission gathered so far, the LLRC has suggested immediate administrative measures to ease the lives of resettled Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and all people living in the former war-battered areas.