that Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe in his speech at the UNHRC sessions in Geneva had agreed to implement the demands being made by the US. He has explained that the Sri Lankan government has agreed to implement the recommendations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) as pointed out in the US draft resolution. The US backed draft resolution calls on the Sri Lankan government to implement the constructive recommendations in the LLRC report and requests the government to present a comprehensive action plan before the next regular session of the UNHRC. Additionally, the government is asked to take immediate measures to address serious allegations of violations of international law by initiating credible and independent investigations and prosecutions of those responsible for such violations. Attanayake has observed that Minister Samarasinghe's statement at the UNHRC sessions was a contradiction to Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa's stand that the government would not bow down to the UNHRC. According to Attanayake, the government could have avoided all these issues had it implemented the recommendations of the LLRC. In his speech Monday, Minister Samarasinghe explained to the Council that the government has already implemented some of these measures recommended by the LLRC including the resettlement of IDPs, demining, rehabilitation of ex-combatants, implementation of the language policy, recruitment of Tamil police officers and gradually removing the military from the civil administration in the North. The government will continue to address the recommended measures comprehensively in a "systematic and thorough" manner, the Minister has assured. The Minister has assured to keep the Council informed of Sri Lanka's progress on these issues in the sessions in June, September and in the course of the upcoming Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in October.
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