Douglas Devananda, a cabinet minister who was once a Tamil militant but crossed to the government side two decades ago, gave a three-hour testimony in the Tamil Language.

Inaccuracy

The Tamil-to-English translator appeared tired and under stress, and Mr Devananda stopped several times to say the translations were not completely accurate.

Mr Devananda, who is the minister in charge of refugee resettlement, also overlooked several requests from the panel’s chairman that he shorten or paraphrase his speech, which he read out. At times the translation was given virtually on a word-by-word basis.

Briefly answering questions from commissioners in English at the end, Douglas Devananda was asked about allegations made by Tamils in the north that pro-government elements were engaging in extortion, for instance taking paddy away from farmers.

He admitted that some of this was happening but said it was “almost under control now”.

LTTE propaganda

But he also said that other allegations, for instance of kidnappings, were largely “rumours” based on “LTTE (Tamil Tiger) propaganda”.

Last month in the northern town of Vavuniya, some ordinary people told the commission that their husbands or sons had been abducted more than a year ago and never seen again.

Mr Devananda, a victim of repeated assassination attempts by the LTTE in the past, said the defeated separatist movement had “pushed the Tamil people into a pit” and had virtually destroyed them, ignoring all humanitarian appeals to let civilians cross to safe areas towards the end of the war.

He said he believed President Mahinda Rajapaksa was an open-minded man who was committed to peace, although he repeated his position that the government should implement a long-pending constitutional measure to devolve more powers to the provinces.

Friday’s procedural problems were the commission’s first serious ones, although at earlier sessions some witnesses have failed to speak fully into the microphone provided and some of those present appeared unable to hear them properly.

There are to be more hearings in the coming month including some in the former war zone in the north.