Report on Sri Lankan ethnic conflict handed to president

Nov 20, 2011, 14:35 GMT

Colombo - The final report by a commission investigating the final stages of Sri Lanka's 26-year-long ethnic conflict was handed over to President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Sunday, officials said.

Its findings will not be made public immediately but instead would be 'studied' by the president's office and submitted to parliament later, presidential spokesman Bandula Jayasekara said.

The eight-member Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) probed the final seven years of the war, which ended after the Tamil rebels were militarily crushed in May 2009.

During the final six to eight months of the conflict at least 7,500 civilians were killed, according to UN estimates.

The failure of the Norwegian-brokered cease-fire to end the conflict is one of the issues investigated by the commission.

Since being appointed in May 2010, the commission held 57 public sessions and undertook 12 field visits including to the former war-torn northern and eastern provinces. They also received over 5,000 written submissions.

More than one thousand people appeared before the commission to give evidence, including the family members of former Tamil rebel leaders killed in the conflict, civilians affected by it and religious leaders.

Some accused the armed forces of atrocities committed during the final stages of the conflict, while others said the Tamil rebels were also responsible for killings and abductions.

Ahead of the release of the report the government decided to investigate at least 20 of the complaints received by the commission. They include cases of abductions, killings and the disappearances of people in the north and eastern provinces.

The Criminal Investigations Department had opened investigations into their complaints on the recommendation of the attorney general, the former LLRC secretary, S B Atugoda, said.