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US Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns on the Sri Lankan Government, the Peace Process and LTTE...

Excerpts from the Press conference at the conclusion of the Donor Co-Chairs meeting in Washington

QUESTION: Sridhar from Press Trust of India. My question is to Mr. Burns. Sir, there has been a lot of writing in the media that there is somehow two different tracks of U.S. policy towards this conflict in Sri Lanka. The hard line espoused by Mr. Burns supposedly is for allowing military offensives for the state of Sri Lanka to preserve the territorial integrity. And supposedly there is a softer line that is pushing for the homeland, you know, of the Sri Lankan Tamils. Can you please clarify for the record what it is that the U.S. is pushing there now in Sri Lanka?

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: Well, I'm very happy to set the record straight if you're confused or if any of your colleagues are confused. The United States doesn't normally have two policies towards one country; we normally follow one.

And in the case of Sri Lanka, the Sri Lankan people and government are a good friend to the United States. We support the government. We have a good relationship with the government. We believe the government has a right to try to protect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the country. The government has a right to protect the stability and security in the country. We meet often with the government at the highest levels and consider the government to be a friend to our country.

We also believe that the Tamil Tigers, the LTTE, is a terrorist group responsible for massive bloodshed in the country and we hold the Tamil Tigers responsible for much of what has gone wrong in the country.

We are not neutral in this respect. I'm talking about the United States Government now. And therefore we hope very much that the people of Sri Lanka will be able to live in peace in the future.

Now, there are times when the government takes actions that we have to speak out because of our opposition to those actions. There have been, as you know, a number of incidents over the last few months that have given us a great deal of concern about the use of military power. And we have called on the government and in our direct conversations with the government to establish a committee of inquiry - the government has done this - and international observers to help find out the truth of what happened and then to ask the government to hold those people responsible. And we have been apprised by the government just in recent days that they intend to do that.

So that would be a general sense of the United States policy towards Sri Lanka. But we share in this respect with our Co-Chairs partners an abiding hope for peace and for an end to the conflict, and we hope to use the combined influence of the European Union and Japan, Norway and the United States, working with countries like India, to see if we can bring our influence to bear to make some suggestions that might be helpful to the government and helpful in bringing about a ceasefire and peace negotiations. That is our immediate objective and that is the policy of my government.

QUESTION: Can I just have a quick follow-up?

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: Please.

QUESTION: Just a follow-up on how - what military assistance does the United States provide to the Government of Sri Lanka and whether any of the arms have been used by the government troops in alleged atrocities?

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: Well, as I said before, the United States does have an assistance program to Sri Lanka. It is an assistance program first and foremost based on our hope for development of the country, for further trade, investment, for attention to some of the economic and health problems of the country. We are working with Sri Lanka as a partner in counterterrorism as well as counterproliferation. All that is happening.

We also do have - we have engaged in military assistance to Sri Lanka. I can't give you an exact accounting for it, but we'd be happy to take your question and get back to you.

QUESTION: I wasn't quite sure is the government doing enough, everything that it can from your point of view, to show that it's ready for peace?

MR. SOLHEIM: Well, I think in my role as facilitator, it's very difficult also to be the judge, so I would prefer someone else to answer that question.

UNDER SECRETARY BURNS: I'd just say on behalf of the United States that we have faith in the government and faith in the President of Sri Lanka. They do want to make peace.

And we are urging the government to choose peace. Now, I think we've all been disturbed, certainly in my government we have been, by the breakdown in the ceasefire.

There's been a tremendous level of fighting and bloodshed over the last few months.

So we ask the government to redouble its efforts. We ask the government to seek a ceasefire from the point of view of the United States and I'm just speaking here on behalf of my own government, not certainly on behalf of the Co-Chairs, we see the LTTE as greatly responsible for the present conflict and we are a fierce critic of their terrorist tactics and the fact that so many people have been victimised by those terrorist tactics.

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