A STATEMENT BY THE INTERNATIONAL INDEPENDENT GROUP OF EMINENT PERSONS

As you may be aware, the IIGEP is in Sri Lanka at the invitation of HE the President to observe the work of the Commission of Inquiry (the Commission) into 16 cases of human rights violations and killings.  The IIGEP is further mandated to make recommendations to the Commission for corrective action, and to report to the President of Sri Lanka whether the investigations and inquiries conducted by the Commission are in accordance with international norms and standards.

 The IIGEP’s public release of information is governed by paragraph 11 of the Presidential Letter of Invitation to each Eminent Person, as stated below:

 Both during and after the completion of investigations and inquiries of the Commission of Inquiry, Members of the IIGEP shall be entitled to release or issue in the form of public statements, other announcements or communications (which shall be in the form of documentary statements, announcements or communications) containing their observations regarding the manner in which the investigations and inquiries of the Commission of Inquiry are being and have been carried out. However, any such observations shall not be divulged or released to any third party without prior written notification of a minimum of two weeks to the Chairman of the Commission of Inquiry and the Attorney General. The Chairman of the Commission of Inquiry and the Attorney General shall only object to the release of any observations only if such observations shall in the opinion of the Chairman of the Commission of Inquiry or the Attorney General be prejudicial to ongoing investigations and inquiries of the Commission of Inquiry, or may be prejudicial to, or absolutely necessary, for the protection of national security and public order.

The respective Member of the IIGEP, the Chairman of the Commission of Inquiry and the Attorney General shall make every endeavour to reach agreement with regards the content of such statement. However, if agreement cannot be reached, the Statement of the respective Member of the IIGEP shall contain the objection raised by the Chairman of the Commission of Inquiry or the Attorney General as the case may be, and the reasons therefor.

His Excellency the President wishes that I underline the necessity for you to maintain the utmost confidentiality pertaining to your observations and information that you may receive in the course of functioning as a member of the IIGEP. Further, the information or the observations of Members of the IIGEP intend to release shall not contain any material that may be prejudicial to national security or public order.

In view of the above, the IIGEP submitted this public statement to the Commission and the Attorney General for their comments on 21 February 2008, following its fifth plenary meeting which took place between 17-19 February 2008. The IIGEP routinely follows up each of its quarterly plenary meetings with a public statement. This public statement outlines the IIGEP’s observations on the work of the Commission since the last IIGEP public statement was issued on 19 December 2007.

 Following discussions with both the Commission and the Attorney General on the contents of the IIGEP’s public statement, in accordance with paragraph 11 of the Letter of Invitation to the Eminent Persons, and with due respect for the two-week notification period, the IIGEP is also publishing the responses of the Commission of Inquiry and the Attorney General to the IIGEP’s public statement .