President appoints Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission
President Mahinda Rajapaksa has appointed the eight
member 'Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation' Commission to report on the
lessons to be learnt from the events in the period, Feb 2002 to May
2009, their attendant concerns and to recommend measures to ensure that
there will be no recurrence of such a situation.
The Commission has been charged with reporting whether
any person, group or institution directly or indirectly bears
responsibility in this regard.
It is also charged with reporting on measures to be
taken to prevent the recurrence of such concerns in the future and
promote further national unity and reconciliation among all communities.
The appointment of this Commission follows cabinet
approval to a memorandum by President Mahinda Rajapaksa. It states that
it has been apparent for quite some time to the Government, that the
conflict situation due to the very brutality and long duration of the
violence perpetrated against Sri Lanka, would have caused great hurt and
anguish in the minds of the people, that requires endeavours for
rehabilitation and the restoration of democratic governance complimented
by measures for reconciliation.
The cabinet noted that the President had sanctioned
Sri Lanka's Permanent Representative in the UN to mention in his remarks
at the UN Security Council Interactive Briefing on 5th June 2009 that
the Government was in the process of initiating a domestic mechanism for
fact finding and reconciliation. This statement stemmed from the
Government's commitment to the promotion and protection of human rights,
as consistently articulated and affirmed by Sri Lanka at Sessions of the
Human Rights Council. The President informed the cabinet that in order
to accomplish this task it has become necessary to set in motion a
mechanism which will provide a historic bridge between the past of a
society characterized by inflicted strife and a future society founded
on the continued recognition of democracy and peaceful co-existence and
the affording of equal opportunities for all Sri Lankans as guaranteed
by the Constitution.
The President informed the cabinet that the Commission
on Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation has been influenced in part by the
South African experience and the Iraq Inquiry of the UK.
The Commissioners appointed under provisions of
Section 2 of the Commissions of Inquiry Act (Chapter 393) are,
Chitta Ranjan de Silva Esquire, PC - Chairman
Dr. Amrith Rohan Perera Esquire, PC
Prof. Mohamed Thahir Mohamed Jiffry Esquire
Prof. Karunaratna Hangawatta Eq
Chandirapal Chanmugam Esq
Hewa Mathara Gamage Siripala Palihakkara Esq
Mrs. Manohari Ramanathan
Maxwell Parakrama Paranagama Esq
They have been asked to report back to the President
within six months from the date of appointment - 15th May, 2010.
Following is the text of the Warrant issued by
President Mahinda Rajapaksa:
WHEREAS I am of the opinion that an opportune moment
has arrived to reflect on the conflict phase and the sufferings the
country has gone through as a whole and having regard to the common
aspirations of all we have collectively resolved that our people are
assured an era of peace, harmony and prosperity;
WHEREAS It has become necessary that while we as an
independent and proud nation of multi-ethnic polity undertake a journey
of common goals in a spirit of co-operation, partnership and friendship
we also learn from this recent history lessons that would ensure that
there will be no recurrence of any internecine conflict in the future;
WHEREAS I am of the opinion that it is in the interest
of public welfare, to appoint a Commission of Inquiry for the purposes
hereinafter mentioned;
NOW THEREFORE I, Mahinda Rajapaksa, President,
reposing great trust and confidence in your prudence, ability,
independence and fidelity, do, in pursuance of the provisions of Section
2 of the Commission of Inquiry Act (Chapter 393), by these presents,
appoint you, the said;
1. Chitta Ranjan de Silva Esquire, PC
2. Dr. Amrith Rohan Perera Esquire, PC
3. Prof. Mohamed Thahir Mohamed Jiffry Esquire
4. Prof. Karunaratna Hangawatta Eq
5. Chandirapal Chanmugam Esq
6. Hewa Mathara Gamage Siripala Palihakkara Esq
7. Mrs. Manohari Ramanathan
8. Maxwell Parakrama Paranagama Esq
To be my Commissioners, to inquire and report on the
following matters that may have taken place during the period between
21st February 2002 and 19th May 2009, namely;
i. the facts and circumstances which led to the
failure of the ceasefire agreement operationalized on 21st February 2002
and the sequence of events that followed thereafter up to the 19th of
May 2009;
ii. whether any person, group, or institution directly
or indirectly bear responsibility in this regard;
iii. the lessons we would learn from those events and
their attendant concerns, in order to ensure that there will be no
recurrence;
iv. the methodology whereby restitution to any person
affected by those events or their dependents or to heirs, can be
effected;
v. the institutional administrative and legislative
measures which need to be taken in order to prevent any recurrence of
such concerns in the future, and to promote further national unity and
reconciliation among all communities, and to make any such other
recommendations with reference to any of the matters that have been
inquired into under the terms of this Warrant
AND I do hereby appoint you the said Chittaranjan de
Silva Esq, President's Counsel and retired Attorney General to be the
Chairman of the said Commission;
AND I do hereby authorize and empower you the said
Commissioners, to hold all such inquiries and to make all such
investigations into the aforesaid matters as may appear to you to be
necessary, and require you to transmit to me within six months of the
date hereof, a report thereon under your hand, setting of the finding of
requires and your recommendations relating thereto;
And I do hereby direct that such part of any inquiry
relating to the aforesaid matters as you may in your discretion
determine, shall not be held in public,
And I do hereby require and direct all Public Officers
and other persons to whom you may apply for such assistance or
information for the purpose of your inquiries or investigations, to
render all such assistance and furnish all such information as may be
properly rendered and furnished in that behalf;
And I do hereby declare that the provisions of Section
14 of the Commissions Inquiry Act (Chapter 393) shall apply to the
Commission;
GIVEN at Colombo, under the seal of the Democratic
Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, this 15th day of May two thousand and
ten
Following is a brief background of the Commissioners:
Mr. C. R. de Silva PC, Chairman, is a former Attorney
General and Solicitor General of Sri Lanka. He was a Member of the
Council of Legal Education, and of the Law Commission of Sri Lanka. He
was called to the Bar in 1974, worked in the chambers of several
prominent lawyers of the private Bar before joining the Attorney
Genera's Department in 1975. He took "silk" as a President's Counsel in
1997.
He has been a member of the Sri Lanka delegation to
many international bodies including the Afro-Asian Legal Consultative
Committee, UN Human Rights Council, UN Human Rights Committee, UN
Convention against Torture Committee and the UN Committee for the
Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
Dr. Rohan Perera PC, was Legal Advisor of the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs and was elected as the Sri Lanka candidate to the
International Law Commission, by the UN General Assembly in New York
securing one of the seven seats allocated to the Asian region.
The International Law Commission was established in
1949 by the General Assembly and entrusted with codification and
progressive development of international law.
Dr. Perera has served for over thirty years in the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, initially as assistant Legal Advisor and
thereafter, as a legal advisor and is also was chairman of the UN ad-hoc
Committee on Measures to Eliminate International Terrorism which
concluded the International Convention on the Suppression of Acts of
Nuclear Terrorism. This Committee has been negotiating a comprehensive
Convention on Terrorism.
He also served as a member of the group of legal
advisors and constitutional experts appointed by the President to advice
the All Party Representatives Committee on a constitutional reform to
resolve the issues relating to ensuring ethnic unity in Sri Lanka.
Prof. Karunaratne Hangawatte, currently professor of
criminal justice in the State of Nevada's premier university in Las
Vegas, has undertaken extensive research on global terrorism that has
qualified him to teach a course on terrorism in the criminal justice
department.
Dr. Karu Hangawatte received his LL.B. from the
University of Ceylon, Colombo, in 1970 and his Ph.D. (with distinction)
in criminal justice in 1984 from the State University of New York at
Albany. He is an attorney-at-law of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka. His
areas of interest include law and society, criminal law and procedure,
constitutional law, legal method and process, terrorism and political
violence, and the administration of criminal justice. He has been an
assistant secretary of justice in Sri Lanka.
He was one of the experts who worked on the United
Nations declaration on the victims of crime and abuse of power and
violation of human rights, which covered the cold war era. The UN
adopted this declaration in 1985.During the time he was in Sri Lanka
Hangawatte occupied a position in the legal research section in the
Ministry of Justice and later as assistant secretary of the same
ministry. He has also received several teaching awards at UNLV.
Mr. HMGS Palihakkara, was former Permanent
Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations. He has served on the
Secretary-General's Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters. He retired as
the Foreign Secretary of Sri Lanka in December 2006 after 38 years of
civil and diplomatic service.
Since the 1990s, he has served on a number of
assignments to the United Nations in Geneva and New York, covering work
related to the General Assembly's First Committee (Disarmament and
International Security), and later the Conference on Disarmament, as
well as on human rights, humanitarian and economic and social affairs.
He either led or participated as a member of Sri Lanka's delegation in
several peace and security/disarmament-related conferences and meetings,
including the 1995 Review and Extension Conference of the Parties to the
Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons
He served as Sri Lanka's Permanent Representative to
the United Nations and head of delegation to the Conference on
Disarmament from 1997 to 2000. After his work in Geneva, he was
appointed Ambassador to Thailand, Cambodia, Lao Peoples Democratic
Republic and Viet Nam, and from 2000 to 2004 served as his country's
Permanent Representative to the United Nations Economic and Social
Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).
Mr. Palihakkara served as Acting Director-General and
Deputy Director-General of Sri Lanka's Peace Secretariat (SCOPP), which
serviced the Norwegian-facilitated peace talks (2002) and subsequent
ceasefire (2003). Among other positions, during the mid-1990s, he was
Director-General of Multilateral Affairs at Sri Lanka's Foreign
Ministry, covering work related to preventive diplomacy, peace-building,
arms control and non-proliferation.
Holding a Bachelor of Education degree from the
University of Ceylon, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, Mr. Palihakkara entered his
country's foreign service in 1979. His foreign affairs training took
place in Australia in 1980, and he followed up his studies in
international human rights and humanitarian law at the Raul Wallenberg
Institute, University of Lund, Sweden.
Professor M T M Jiffry, is Vice Chairman of the
University Grants Commission, Senior Professor of Physiology -University
of Sri Jayewardenepura, an Examiner of the Post Graduate Institute of
Medicine, and former President, Health Informatics Society of Sri Lanka.
He has been active in the building of inter-ethnic understanding and has
been engaged in the advance of education in Sri Lanka to serve the needs
of all communities.
Mr. C. Chanmugam is former Secretary to the Treasury
and former member of the Monetary Board of Sri Lanka. He was also
Chairman of the Board of Directors of Fitch Ratings Sri Lanka. An
Associate of the Royal Institute of Chemistry, Mr. Chanmugam has held
many positions of distinction in Sri Lanka and abroad.
He was the Executive Director of the Institute of
Policy Studies, Sri Lanka. A former Advisor to the Ministry of Finance
and Planning, was also e Secretary to the Ministry of Finance and
Planning; the Alternate Governor to the Asian Development Bank and the
World Bank (1987-88). In Sri Lanka, he was also Chairman, Foreign
Investment and Advisory Committee and the Controller of Tea, Rubber and
Coconut industries.
Mrs. Mano Ramanathan, had a long and distinguished
career in the legal profession where she rose to be the Deputy Legal
Draughtsman. She has been active in the reform of law to strengthen the
rights of women and children, as has been associated with work involving
women's empowerment. She is the wife of the late Justice P. Ramanathan.
Mr. Maxwell Paranagama, a former High Court Judge had
a distinguished career in the legal profession before elevation to the
bench of the High Court.
Courtesy : President Media Unit | 
