Minister of Power and Energy Champika Ranawaka said that a census in the war-torn areas was important as it would enable everyone in the arena to get an idea of the overall picture of what happened during the war.

The Minister proposed a census to be carried out in war-torn areas. “If a census is carried out in the Wanni District and other war-torn areas about the number of people who were living there, those who perished, those who fled and those who were taken away by the LTTE, we will be able to keep our distance from these allegations,” he noted.

He made this statement days after the Ministry of Defence informed that it was to publish a comprehensive report regarding the civilian casualties that occurred during the last stages of the humanitarian operation.

He also said that it was unnecessary to carry out an independent inquiry into allegations of war crimes if they had been committed by the security forces.

“The commission exceeded the mandate which was given to them,” he said at a discussion organized by the National Intellectual Council on the topic, ‘Missed Lessons of the Lessons Learnt Commission’.

He said a total of 9878 civil assassinations were carried out between 1972 and 2009 by the LTTE. But not a single line is mentioned about these killings. But the LLRC had only made a point that 474 disappearances had taken place.

Nearly 11,000 LTTE combatants surrendered to the security forces and out of them 10,300 have been released after giving them vocational training. They have confessed the crimes they had committed but all of them were released to society.

The responsibility of the commission was to put forward proposals that would make sure Sri Lanka would not face such atrocities that everyone suffered during the war,” Minister Ranawaka said.

Ven. Hadigalle Wimalasara Thera said that the commission also failed to take statements from former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaranatunga and Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe. Failing to take their statements for P-TOMS and for signing the Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) is a big mistake the commission committed.

Source: Daily Mirror - Sri Lanka