By R. K. RADHAKRISHNAN –

A mere four days after a resolution at the United Nations Human Rights Council wanted Sri Lanka to implement the recommendations of a commission that went into issues of reconciliation, a senior Minister has said the commission had gone beyond its mandate.

Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva, who had presented the report of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission to Parliament and assured on the floor of the House its implementation, said on Monday the LLRC went beyond its mandate. “Careful consideration would be given before implementing the recommendations proposed by the LLRC,” he said at a press conference organised by the External Affairs Ministry and attended by the team comprising at least six Ministers which went to Geneva.

Sri Lanka’s stand so far has been that it had set up three committees to implement the recommendations of the LLRC report. Its Army has instituted a Court of Inquiry to probe the alleged cases of human rights violations. It argued before the UNHRC that sufficient time should be given to implement the recommendations. It said the report was submitted to the government only in November 2011 and it was presented to Parliament in December the same year. Hardly three months had passed and the government was serious about implementing the report, Sri Lanka told the world.

The Minister’s assertion indicates a change of stance on the implementation of the report. Sri Lanka is also yet to implement the interim recommendations of the commission, which was submitted more than a year before the final report was handed over to the President.

Instead, Mr. Srirpala wanted the Tamil National Alliance to participate in the proposed Parliamentary Select Committee to evolve a national consensus on a political solution of the ethnic problem.

The TNA is against this as it will be a minority in the PSC and the outcome of such a body would not be favourable for the Tamils of the Northern Province.