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Sri Lankan panel to start work

COLOMBO: The Commission on “Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation” constituted by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa is scheduled to hold its first public sitting on August 11 here.

Besides six sittings here, it would have two sittings in Vavuniya district in the north this month.

The Commission has been appointed under Section 2 of the Commission of Inquiry Act to probe the incidents leading to the war between the LTTE and the security forces.

The Commission has been given the mandate to attend to the concerns and recommend measures to ensure that there will be no recurrence of such a situation in the interest of national unity and reconciliation among all communities.

According to an official statement issued here the eight-member Commission has had a few meetings earlier to discuss modalities of work and it was decided to hold sittings in the affected areas in the North and East to enable the public to have easy access to the Commission and enhance awareness of its work.

The Commission will inquire and report on facts and circumstances which led to the failure of the cease-fire agreement operationalised in February, 2002 and the sequence of events that followed thereafter up to the May, 2009 and whether any person, group or institution directly or indirectly bear responsibility in this regard.

It has been asked to report on 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 in the island nation.

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