By Dinouk Colombage

The recently released Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission’s (LLRC) report will not be handed over to the foreign embassies in Sri Lanka, according to Sarath Dissanayake, spokesperson for Foreign Ministry.

Dissanayake told The Sunday Leader that Sri Lanka would not be officially handing over any copies of the LLRC report to the foreign embassies in Sri Lanka. He explained that ‘the report is available online; they can follow the link and view the report at their own leisure. There is no reason to officially hand over a copy of the report’.

This omission in handing over copies of the report is similar to the UN’s refusal to provide Sri Lanka with a copy of the Darusman report in April this year.

The United Nations Human Rights High Commissioner, Navi Pillay, had told media last week that she would not be visiting Sri Lanka until the report was made public.

At the time of her comments, the report was still in the possession of President Mahinda Rajapaksa and was still to be presented to Parliament. She did, however, welcome the report calling for the LLRC report and the UN Panel of Experts Report to be taken up for debate in the Human Rights Council.