LLRC Action Plan Calls For Police To Be Independent

By Dinouk Colombage

Sri Lanka’s National Plan of action to implement the recommendations of the LLRC has called for the police department to be de-linked from the institutions dealing with the armed forces.
However, if this recommendation is to go forward it will need the approval of the proposed Parliamentary Select Committee.
The National Plan was presented on Thursday by Presidential Secretary, Lalith Weeratunga, and Minister of External Affairs, G. L. Peiris.
After months of speculation on which recommendations would be implemented, the government finally presented a detailed plan outlining how they would set about implementing the approved recommendations which have been divided into four separate categories.
The four categories that the national plan has been divided into are Human Rights, Land Return and Resettlement, Restitution/Compensatory Relief and Reconciliation.
Under the framework of Human Rights, investigations are to be carried out into the alleged disappearances which have been reported around the country. These investigations are to be carried out by the police, the Justice Ministry and the Attorney General’s Department; while a time period of 3 months has been given to complete its investigations.
The Ministry of Defence and the police will be carrying out investigations into allegations of criminal conduct by illegal armed groups, as well as ensuring that these groups are disarmed. These measures are currently ongoing.
They will also be carrying out island wide human rights education programmes targeting school children, youth, members of the security forces and the police. This is to be carried out by the Ministry of Education, the National Human Rights Commission, the armed forces and the IGP.
The Ministry of Lands, Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Re-settlement and the Ministry of Defence will be working alongside their Indian counterparts to a formal bilateral consultation process between India and Sri Lanka to assist with the return of the displaced Sri Lankans in India.
The Ministry of Mass Media and the police and press council will be taking all necessary action to ensure media freedom in the country. It will also complete all investigations in to the ongoing cases involving the media.
Under the Land Return and Resettlement, the plan highlights the steps that will be taken to make available land to all returning IDPs around the country. These operations will come under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Land and will take up to 24 months to be completed.
A plan is to be implemented which will compensate all those who have been either injured or killed by the LTTE during the war, there is no mention of whether or not those killed or injured by the actions of the security forces receiving compensation.
Reconciliation revolves around the gradual phasing out of the security forces from civilian life; however, this is to be done within “reasonable time line.” The reconciliation process will also revolve around normalising the civilian lives in the former warzones through the gradual removal of the security forces from the administration of a region.