Colombo: The Sri Lankan commission looking
into the ethnic conflict in the country's Tamil-dominated
north submitted its much-anticipated report to the President
on Sunday, with a media report saying it may recommend prosecution
of some soldiers and officers "for exceeding the right of
defence".
President Mahinda Rajapaksa was presented with the report
of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC),
here this evening, said the president's office.
The report was handed over by panel chairman, CR de Silva
in the presence of the other members.
There was no immediate word about the contents of the much
awaited report and the decision to make it public rests with
the president, but media reports ahead of its release
suggested that the panel might have listed evidence against
some.
The Sunday Times said the LLRC had noted evidence that
warrants a new probe.
"Information points to prima facie evidence but no names
named," the paper said.
'Ceylon Today', the Sunday paper in its inaugural edition,
said that several soldiers and a few senior military officers
are likely to be taken to task by the report.
"(the report) is likely to come up with a recommendation
to prosecute a number of soldiers for exceeding the right of
defence," Ceylon Today said.
The Sunday Times also said the LLRC had rubbished the
British TV channel 4 documentaries.
Rajapaksa appointed the LLRC in May last year to look back
at the period between February 2002 and May 2009 covering the
Norwegian-backed peace initiative and the government's
triumphant military campaign which vanquished the LTTE.
The Sri Lankan government has often come under attack from
Western nations and rights groups that have demanded an
independent international probe into the war crimes committed
during the last phase of the war against the LTTE.
The government had set up the reconciliation commission to
counter such attacks and tell the international community that
an internal inquiry was on to probe the incidents of the war.
It was also intended to be Colombo's answer to the war crimes
probe demanded by UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon's panel on
Sri Lanka.
However, international rights groups such as the Human
Rights Watch and the Amnesty International had described the
LLRC as being "flawed at every level".
PTI
First Published: Monday, November 21, 2011, 00:18