Will implement LLRC recommendations on our own: Lanka

Resisting continuing international pressure on its human rights record, Sri Lanka today said it did not need any outside nudging on implementing the LLRC's recommendations.
"President (Mahinda) Rajapaksa appointed the LLRC thinking about our own people and our country so there is no need for pressure from anyone outside," government spokesman and Minister of Information Keheliya Rambukwella said today.
He was responding to the resolution passed yesterday by the European Parliament (EP) at its plenary session in Strasbourg asking the Sri Lankan government to implement the recommendations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) in full.
"Some of the recommendations we have already implemented. But some of it takes medium and long term work. Some of it needs even constitutional amendments," Rambukwella said.

The EP in its resolution said the Sri Lankan government must intensify its efforts to fully implement the LLRC recommendations concerning credible investigations, demilitarisation, and the establishment of land dispute resolution mechanisms, amongst others.
"The military force in the former conflict areas remains considerable" and there are continuing reports of intimidation and human rights violations, the EP noted.

Several EP members had expressed views that the people of Sri Lanka deserve to know what happened to friends and families during the 30-year civil war and called for an independent inquiry into the actions of both sides.
The EP resolution follows a call by British Prime Minister David Cameron for an independent investigation into alleged war crimes during the island's brutal ethnic conflict.

Sri Lanka is expected to face its third resolution at the UN Human Rights Council in as many years next March.
Both previous resolutions urged Sri Lanka for speedier implementation of the LLRC's recommendations.
India and the US had voted in favour of the resolution criticising Sri Lanka's human rights record.