The document outlines a research plan studying the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) process in Sri Lanka. It defines the research problem as evaluating whether the LLRC can reconcile ethnic communities through a post-war reconciliation process. The methodology section describes a mixed methods approach using interviews, questionnaires, and sampling clusters across ethnic groups. The findings suggest that most people see reconciliation as important for peace, but that the LLRC process failed to effectively seek truth or address needs of victims. It concludes that more needs to be done to deal with the past and generate true reconciliation in Sri Lanka.

1. Truth seeking and
Reconciliation
A study of LLR commission Process
in Sri Lanka
D.V M. S. Asiri
HS/2006/11194
Political Science special
University Of Ruhuna

2. Research plan
• Defining research problem
• Review of related literature
• Methodology
• Research analyzing
• Conclusion
• Recommendations

3. Defining research problem
• After ending of the civil war in Sri Lanka,
government was concerning to build sustainable
peace through reconciliation in Sri Lanka.
• In this condition Sri Lanka President Mahinda
Rajapaksha appointed a commission called
Lesson Learnt and Reconciliation Commission
(LLRC) to report on the lessons to be learnt from
the past.

4. • I concerned about reconciliation process that should be used in
the aftermath of ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka to create sustainable
peace and build relationship among ethnic groups.
• There for this analysis was constructed around the following
research question
Further the research followed sub questions;
1. How does the LLRC process focus on truth seeking?
2. What are the factors should have for reconciling Sri
Lankan society?
3. What are the actions should be taken to build
relationships among the ethnicities?
Will the lessons learnt and reconciliation
commission be able to reconcile ethnic
communities in Sri Lanka through
reconciliation as a mechanism for post
war peace building?

5. Review of related literature
• Reconciliation
• Truth and reconciliation commission
• Sri Lanka conflict and peace

6. David Bloomfield. Teresa Barues
and Luc Hugse :
reconciliation after violent
conflict: a hand book .
creating trust and understanding
between conflicted parties is
difficult challenge in post conflict
peace building. As it is, the
examination of violent past is
more important for peace
John Paul Ledarach:
Building peace: sustainable
reconciliation in divided
society.
suggest that modern peace
building should focused on
reconciliation , and on
rebuilding relationships, a
focus on reconciliation
recognize that conflicts are
essentially types of
relationships
Reconciliation:

7. Truth and reconciliation commission
Hugo Van Der Merwe and Andrey
R Chapmen
Truth and reconciliation in south
Africa: the TRC deliver
providing an analysis of
– victims with the point of
assessing the South African
transitional justice,
– what survivors say about
justice,
– TRC approach to promoting
reconciliation in human right
violation hearings,
– perspectives on the role of
forgiveness in the human
right violation hearings
Samaddar Ranabir
peace studies: an
introduction to the concept ,
scope and themes
to create reconciliation there
must be attempts to forget past
and healing themselves with all
society together

8. Robert I Rothery
creating peace in Sri Lanka civil war and reconciliation
analyses the conflict with
– The ethnic and religious antagonism that fuel it
– The political miscalculations that precipitated it
– The mistrust which permeates both battling sides.
the way how to come all together and reveres the tragedies
of recent past
Sri Lanka Conflict and Peace

9. Asoka Bandarage
‘the separatist conflict in Sri Lanka: terrorism, ethnicity,
political economy’
there must be mechanism to sustain peace through democratic
process.
“a democratic approach to conflict resolution requires a frame
work in which the claims and concerns of all groups can be
heard” (Bandarage, 2009:25)

10. Patha S Ghosh
ethnicity versus nationalism: the devolution discourse in Sri
Lanka’
“The challenge for any democracy in a multiethnic society is to
discover how to blend the two as harmoniously as possible”
(Ghosh, 2003:26)
Malinga H Gunarathne
For a sovereign state
he points out
• how land issue became a problem of people whom
separated with ethnic identity and last transparence it in to
a conflict
• having ruptured relationship between ethnic groups cause
of land is inappropriate.

11. Methodology
• “something very important when doing a social research is to
thoroughly describe what method is used to make it accessible for
the readers and to be able to the process scientific” (Teorell &
Svensson, 2007:54).
Research
area
Problem
Literature
Context
Questions
Theory
Research
Design
Data
collection
Hypothesis
Data
analysis
Data
interpretation
Pre– empirical stage Empirical Stage
Source: (Punch, 1998:42)

12. Research design:
• mixed method approach
“ in which the investigator collects and analyzes
data , integrates the findings and draws
inferences using both qualitative and quantitative
approaches or method in a single study or a
programme of inquiry”
(taskkori&Creswell,2007:4).
Mixed
method
Qualitative
approach
Quantitative
approach

13. Theoretical drive:
INDUCTIVE find answers to
the question
a qualitative driven research followed by
quantitative research
QUAL quan

14. Research sampling method:
• “Many of the research topic under
studying in the social sciences are quite
complex and require a combination of
sampling techniques to adequately
explore the phenomena of interest”
(Kemper, Stringfield & teddlie,
2003:283).
To have sample of large
population this paper will
use characteristics of
race, gender and place of
residence
race, gender place of
residence

15. mixed method sampling strategy
Probability sampling non-probability sampling
cluster sampling
First GA: north province- represents Tamil Population
Second GA: eastern province- represents Muslim population
Third GA: Sothern province- represents Sinhala population
2nd stage - small clusters within
each selected big clusters
First GA: north province- Nullur and Wanni
Second GA: eastern province- Kalmunai and Mutur
Third GA: Sothern province- Akuressa and Hambantota
Quota sampling
1st stage- to cluster a large number
of geographical areas (GA) in Sri
Lanka.
focus on characteristic of the
population such as
• ethnicity
• gender
to have small elements
• Tamil ethnicity in the area
of GAN- Nallur and Wanni
• Sinhala ethnicity in the area of
GAS-Akurassa and Hambantota
• Muslim ethnicity in the area of
GAE- Kalmunai and Mutur.

16. Instruments to be used
expecting to strength two approaches by
combining and compensate for weaknesses of
both of them.
mixed method data collecting strategy
questionnaires interviews
• open ended
• close ended
• interview guide

17. Data analyzing
“Once data became available, the next phase of the mixed
method research process is data analyzing” (Onwuegbuzie &
Teddlie, 2003:351).
mixed method analysis
Qualitative data analysis Quantitative data analysis
SPSS analysis Contextual
analysis

18. Research analyzing
• First step :
was reduction of data as I use 180 samples for this research.
Quantitative data was coded and categorized by using SPSS and
qualitative data reduction was including coding, writing memos
and making partitions
• Second Step:
data reduction stage was followed by data
display stage
• Table
• chart

19. Method Actor Codes
Interview Lawyers L1
L2
L3
Religious leader RL1
RL2
RL3
University students US1 – US 6
Questionnaire Northern Province Nallur Female NNF1 – NNF15
Northern Province Nallur Male NNM1 – NNM15
Northern Province Wanni Female NWF1 – NWF15
Northern Province Wanni Male NWM1 – NWM15
Eastern Province Kalmunai Female EKF1 – EKF15
Eastern Province Kalmunai Male EKM1 – EKM15
Eastern Province Mutur Female EMF1 – EMF15
Eastern Province Mutur Male EMM1 – EMM15
Southern Province Akurassa Female SAF1 – SAF15
Southern Province Akurassa Male SKM1 – SKM15
Southern Province Hambantota Female SHF1 – SHF15
Southern Province Hambantota Male SHM1 – SHM15
Cording

20. • LLRC process as a truth seeking
mechanism
• Reconciliation
– Truth
– Justice
– Forgive and forget
– Learn from the past
• Relationship building
Research
Dataanalyzing

21. 1. LLRC process as truth seeking mechanism
• Many people argue that
LLRC is not commenced
and proceed well.
• They didn’t know about
LLRC
27%
73%
1
2
Total Analysis
48
132
0 50 100 150
1
2
Total Analysis
Series1
the main problem was that
the People of Sri Lanka
doesn’t know what LLRC is
and why it was established.

22. 16
33
131
1
2
3
Series1
9%
18%
73%
1
2
3
People did not
satisfied with LLRC
process as a
mechanism for truth
seeking.

23. Reconciliation
• According to the research output, reconciliation can
be seen as dealing with few specific concepts.
– First reconciliation promotes an encounter between the
painful past and the sheared future by revealing truth.
– Second reconciliation provides a place for justice where
redress wrong doing of past.
– Third it will create space for forget and forgiving by healing
their wounds.
– finally it will give opportunity to learn from past lessons as
it is necessary in Sri Lanka society to create relationship
among ethnic communities.

24. People
opinion was
reconciliation
is possible in
Sri Lanka
93%
4% 3%
1
2
3
167
7
6
1
2
3
Series1

25. people think that
reconciliation is
important in Sri
Lanka as the
perspective of
sustainable
peace
98%
2%
1
2
176
4
1
2
Series1

26. Truth
to make
understand
about each
other it is
important to
reveal the truth
147
1
32
1
2
3
Series1
82%
0%
18%
1
2
3

27. Justice
• People want
justice and they
want any kind of
punishment for
the people who
violate their
human rights and
who did offend to
them and their
beloved ones.
119
58
3
1
2
3
Series1
66%
32%
2%
1
2
3

28. Forgive and forget
forgiveness is
acceptable
among people132
24
24
1
2
3
Series1
73%
14%
13%
1
2
3
45
135
1
2
Series1
25%
75%
1
2
people do not
believe
forgetting is
easy

29. Learn from the past
• almost all
of people
are ready to
learn from
the past.
180
0
1
2
Series1
100%
0%
1

30. Many people believe
Sri Lanka conflict
was emerging
because of ruptured
relationship among
ethnic groups.
180
0
1
2
Series1
100%
0%
1
Relationship building

31. • Sri Lanka
community is
looking forward to
have sustainable
peace
• People believe
that in the present
situation it is
possible to build
sustainable peace
in Sri Lanka
89%
11%
1
2
161
19
1
2
Series1
82%
18%
1
2
147
33
1
2
Series1
Many people believe
that every ethnic group
should live together

32. Conclusion
• The people of Sri Lanka Don’t
know about LLRC or Its process
for truth seeking
• People of Sri Lanka afraid to
reveal the truth although they
want speak about past.
• LLRC haven’t understand the
needs of victims such as security
• They haven’t go far to deal with
the past or generate
reconciliation in Sri Lanka.

33. Recommendations
• Sri Lanka have to distinguish a process that
need for reconciliation at individual level
• Sri Lanka must have redeeming approach to
address to the past violence and reveal the
truth