The Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) was appointed with the objective of finding a lasting solution to the ethnic problem of the country, after the defeat of the LTTE militarily. Since there was no initiative to create a public discourse on the content of the report of this commission there was a risk of society getting a negative idea about the commission and its report.
The Centre for Policy Alternatives intervened at this point to build up the missed public discourse with the objective of preparing the background for implementing the important recommendations contained in the report.
Accordingly CPA took steps to translate and publish the ninth chapter of the LLRC report which contain its recommendations, in a simplified form in Sinhala and Tamil, at a time when there was no sign of translating the report to Sinhala and Tamil Languages.
Further, 48 trainers were selected from as many civil society organizations in a way they represent all the districts in the country. Following a 5 day Training, they returned to their respective areas where each one of them conducted between 20 to 30 workshops with the attendance of over 30,000 participants from allthroughout the country, for making them aware on the recommendations of the LLRC report. 22 district level seminars also were held. Further, 130,000 copies of the publication edited by Mr. S.G.Punchihewa, Attorney- at- law, on the LLRC recommendations as well as the “Samavimarshee” issue on the LLRC report were also distributed among the public throughout the country.
A survey was also conducted with the participation of some selected witnesses who gave evidence before the LLRC commission to examine their current views on the subject. For this a questionnaire designed by the Social Indicator unit of CPA was used. This survey involved the participation of 20 witnesses from the North and 25 witnesses from Colombo and also randomly selected 1500 participants from the workshops. Data thus obtained was analyzed by the Social Indicator and was incorporated in to this publication which comes out as an opinion survey on LLRC report.
Views of society on this subject, and views on the importance of building a country without ethnic conflicts which appreciates coexistence as well as the obstacles to be faced in achieving that objective are reflected among other matters, in this report.
We are very grateful to Mrs. Sagarika Delgoda and the team at Friedrich Naumann Stiftung (FNF) that helped us to make this effort of ours a success, and to Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, the Executive Director of CPA who gave us guidance in this effort, to all in the Social Indicator who did the analysis and compilation based on information provided by us, to all the trainers who contributed to the survey and to all others who assisted us in many other ways.
Lionel Guruge
Coordinator, CPA Outreach Unit, Centre for Policy Alternatives