A Sri Lankan commission, which was appointed by the president to look back at the island's longstanding civil war ending in May 2009, is to meet southerners to record evidence, officials said Saturday.
The Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission said they would record evidence from people in the southern districts of Galle, Matara and Hambantota inhabited predominantly by the majority Sinhala community.
The reason is that a large number of southerners had worked in the north and east conflict zones where the Tamil Tiger rebels waged war to carve out a separate state for the minority Tamils.
The experiences of such people need to be recorded in the commission's final report, said C.R de Silva, Chairman of the commission.
The commission started its sittings in August last year and had travelled to the former conflict areas to interview people, with the aim of learning from the conflict which cost over 70,000 deaths in more than three decades and to prevent a repetition.