Lanka sets up central secretariat for speedy reconciliation

Sri Lanka has decided to set up a centralised reconciliation secretariat to ensure speedy coordination among various bodies engaged in rapprochement with Tamil minority community.
The Cabinet in a meeting yesterday decided to set up the Secretariat for Coordinating Reconciliation Mechanisms after a proposal by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, Cabinet spokesman and Minister Rajitha Senaratne told media.
Senaratne said the government was concerned about the lack of a central institution which could coordinate reconciliation work launched by several government ministries and agencies, and also to prevent undue delays.
The Secretariat will coordinate a national debate on reconciliation mechanisms, prepare a time-defined road map for the setting up of a secretariat on disappearances of individuals, setting up of a truth and reconciliation commission.

The new secretariat will also coordinate work between the local Human Rights Commission and international institutions like UN High Commissioner of Human Rights.
It will also be tasked to strengthen reforms needed on rule of law, human rights and judicial reforms to ensure reconciliation with Tamils after nearly four decades of ethnic war that claimed over 100,000 lives.
The US-sponsored resolution at the UN Human Rights Council in October mandated the setting up of a local mechanism to probe human rights allegations levelled at the previous Mahinda Rajapaksa government and the move to set up the new secretariat appears to be the government's response to the task.

The previous Rajapaksa regime is facing allegations that troops under its command killed at least 40,000 Tamil civilians in the final months of fighting with the LTTE in 2009.