Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has appointed a five-member high-level committee to look into a US Congress report that alleged human rights violations by both the Army and LTTE during the last phase of the 30-year-old civil war.
The committee would be headed by legal expert D S Wijesinghe, Minister for Disaster Management and Human Rights Mahinda Samarasinghe told reporters on November 6.
The other members of the committee are Nihal Jayamanne, C.R. de Silva, Mano Ramanathan and Jesima Ismail.
Rajapaksa had earlier said that he would appoint an independent committee to comprehensively examine and provide recommendations on the report.
The report, submitted by the US State Department to the Congress, had charged that both the government and the LTTE with "serious" human rights violations in the final months of the conflict.
The 68-page report prepared by the War Crimes Office lists 170 human rights violations between May 2 and 18.
The committee will have until December 31 this year to submit its final report, Samarasinghe said.
