The Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) is hopeful that former President Chandrika Kumaratunga will testify before it next month.
“We have had an acknowledgment from her office to the request made to come before the Commission, and we are trying to work out the modalities of how she can testify here,” LLRC Media Coordinator, Lakshman Wickremasinghe said.
However, the former President has not confirmed her attendance.
Meanwhile, Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe who was requested to testify before the LLRC, has yet to acknowledge receipt of the invitation. “The Commission is keen to hear from him, because of the crucial role he played in the Cease-Fire Agreement (CFA),” the LLRC Co-coordinator said.
The warrant of the LLRC requires it to inquire and report in particular, the facts and circumstances which led to the failure of the CFA which came into operation on February 21, 2002, and the sequence of events that followed thereafter up to May 19, 2009, when the LTTE was defeated.
Meanwhile, LLRC members will visit the Dollar and Kent farms in the Padaviya area, which were the scenes of the first massacre of civilians by the LTTE in 1984, as well as the scene of a bomb blast in Abimmanapura. The Commission members in February are due to visit Weli Oya and Welikanda, where much of the LTTE attacks on civilians took place, and also go to Ampara, a trip postponed due to the recent floods there. |
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