LLRC had over passed their mandate: JHU

The Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) charged today that the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) had failed to look into the 9,878 civil assassinations which were carried out by the LTTE and put forward proposals in taking actions against those who are responsible.

General Secretary of the party and the Minister of Power and Energy Patali Champika Ranawaka said that the commission had exceeded the mandate which was given to them and had said that there is an ethnic problem in the country while going on to say that there is a need for the devolution of power. These are political problems and we have told them that there is no such dispute but the commission had not recognised the limits of equality.

A total of 9,878 civil assassinations were carried out between 1972 and 2009 by the LTTE. But not a single line is mentioned about these killings. But the LLRC had only made a point that a number of 474 disappearances had taken place.

Nearly 150,000 Sinhalese were displaced as a result of the war but the committee had forgotten the steps and the proposals that should be made to these people in order to secure their future.

“Even the people in the North and East had said that these people were with them from school days. But they have lost their homes, some had been taken forcefully from them and some had taken them by preparing forged deeds,” he said.

“We will convey the lapses and the key points where they have spoken about them partially, only by looking at one perspective,” he said.

“This is a report. So the government can consider it or not for future references. But the report is not similar to the Darusman report or other fairy tale reports. These people went to these areas and gathered all the necessary information about the post and pre-war period,” he added.

He further stated that 11,000 LTTE combatants surrendered to the security forces and out of them 10,300 have been released after giving them vocational training. They have confessed the crimes they had committed but all of them were released to society.

“They have also not mentioned about the steps they would take on 40 LTTE financers and supporters. The responsibility of the commission was to put forward proposals that would make sure Sri Lanka will not face such atrocities that everyone suffered during the war,” Minister Ranawaka said.

The LLRC was established to gather information about the cease fire agreement, its failures, military operations and aftermath, rebuilding the lives of people in the North and East. The time frame it was given to monitor was between February 21, 2002 and May 19, 2009.

453 individuals gave important statements to the commission.  (Supun Dias)-(Pix by Samantha Perera)