Sri Lanka not to fully implement post-war recommendations

The Sri Lankan government Friday said it will not fully implement the recommendations of a post-war commission despite calls to do so by the international community.

Government cabinet spokesman Minister Keheliya Rambukwella said that of the 180 recommendations made by the Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), the government will implement 144 recommendations.

The minister said the government has already implemented 45 recommendations and is in the process of implementing the others stage by stage, Xinhua reported.

A committee headed by the secretary to the president is engaged in monitoring the implementation of the 144 recommendations of the LLRC contained in the National Plan of Action, out of which, 45 are deemed to be completed, 89 are ongoing and 10 are in the early stage of implementation.

The minister said a proposal made by President Mahinda Rajapaksa to establish a Special Bureau for Reconciliation to function under the secretary to the president and to carry out tasks entrusted to it for the purpose of facilitating the committee's work in monitoring the implementation of the LLRC recommendations, was approved by the cabinet Friday.

Rambukwella noted that the implementation of some recommendations required constitutional changes.

"More than one-third of the proposals have been implemented. There are certain recommendations which require constitutional amendments. That's a long process," he noted.

The minister noted that a parliament committee was also appointed to address some of the issues related to constitutional changes, but the main minority Tamil party in Sri Lanka -- the Tamil National Alliance -- has so far boycotted the process.