National Unity and Reconciliation Office Director General, Deepthi Lamahewa said yesterday (10) that the government has decided to establish a new ‘Truth-seeking Commission’ with the aspiration of creating a country where national unity and reconciliation is created.
As promised by the Foreign Affairs Minister during the last session of the Human Rights Commission, Lamahewa said that the truth-seeking commission will be launched and the Cabinet has approved it.
The new commission will consider the recommendations of the Commission of Judge Udalagama, which was implemented in 2005, the Commission on Lessons Learned, which was in operation during 2002-2009, and the Judge Paranagama Commission, which was implemented in 2013, and the recommendations that have not been implemented so far. He also mentioned that the new truth-seeking commission is open to any party trying bring prosperity and comfort to the country as well as to any group trying to set the country aflame.
He revealed that the allegations regarding the recent Easter Sunday attacks in Sri Lanka are to be discussed before the truth-seeking commission. According to this, accusations and slanders against certain parties regarding this path can be presented before this commission as well.Pointing out that a country cannot forget national unity and reconciliation in the journey fordevelopment, Lamahewa said that the European Commission has given the country 11 million Euros for the next two years to establish peace and reconciliation.
At the press conference held at the Justice Ministry, DG Deepthi Lamahewa said: Our country faced a 30-year war. The government worked to establish the Office for National Unity and Reconciliation to ensure that Sri Lanka would not be challenged by the germs of extremism and racism.
Our office has launched many national programmes to achieve these facts. We are implementing programmes such as trilingual subjects within the school system, implementing conflict management and peace courses in the 17 universities of the national university system, and creating a media culture to alleviate problems.Apart from this, our office has entered into the national tasks of training officers, training national joint officers and teams of 331 Divisional Secretariat Divisions.Harsha B. Abeykoon, media adviser of the ministry, also spoke during this news conference.
by Daily News Sri Lanka
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