DailyMirror
Lessons learnt and reconciliation
The Cabinet yesterday approved the setting up of a “Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission” and allocated Rs.10 million to carry out its functions as mandated by the government, sources said.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa presented the three-page cabinet paper on the proposed Commission which will comprise seven eminent persons.
The Commission has been tasked to investigate the reasons behind the collapse of the Norway-brokered ceasefire agreement and the sequence of events between February 22, 2002 and May 19, last year.
It will also report on whether any person or institution was responsible for what happened.
The Commission is free to adopt its criterion to investigate and make recommendations. A team of senior lawyers will assist the Commission while the Attorney General will function as the government’s chief legal adviser to the Commission.
A Secretariat is to be established to carry out the administrative functions of this Commission while the president would appoint a Secretary General to oversee its financial management.
External Affairs Minister G.L. Peiris told parliament last week, the government would derive insights from Britain’s ‘Chilkot Commission’, which examined the reasons for the rise of IRA guerrillas.
The government is also on record as saying that this Commission will be set up on similar lines to that of the National Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa during the post apartheid period.