Lankan panel ready with report on war against LTTE

The reconciliation commission studying Sri Lanka's ethnic war and its aftermath is ready with its final report and may present it to President Mahinda Rajapaksa over the next 15 days.

Officials said on Monday that the report of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission is being readied for presentation to the President who will then decide on making it public.

LLRC spokesman Lakshman Wickremasinghe said the report could be presented to Rajapaksa before the November 15 deadline.

"We are making arrangements for it to be presented to the president. Although we have no definite date, it is likely to be presented in the second week of November," Wickremasinghe said.

"Our mandate limits us to handing it over to the President. Making it public or otherwise will be entirely in the President's hands," Wickremasinghe added.

The LLRC was appointed by Rajapaksa in May 2010 to look back at the island's separatist conflict with the LTTE, covering the period of the Norwegian brokered peace process which began in February 2002 and till the end to the military offensive in May 2009.

The LLRC spokesman said that over 1,000 oral submissions and over 5,000 written submissions had been received by the commission.

"People of varying status have recorded their submissions with us and we have given more chances to people from the north and east," Wickremasinghe added.

Sri Lanka has used the LLRC to thwart criticism by international governments and right groups who have called for an independent investigation into its human rights record during the final war with the LTTE.

An expert panel report of the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon issued in April had accused Sri Lanka and the LTTE of committing war crimes and called for an investigation.