Government’s rebuilding efforts commendable:

US Secretary of State hails Reconciliation Commission

By Manjula FERNANDO

Lanka, US ties improve

Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to the UN in New York Dr. Palitha Kohona told the Sunday Observer that the most important outcome of the External Affairs Minister’s visit to the US was that it helped patch up strained bilateral relations between the two counties and created a better understanding of the ground realities in facing the post conflict challenges of Sri Lanka. It was the first bilateral contact with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by a Sri Lankan Foreign Minister.

Dr. Kohona said Sri Lanka will emerge as an important strategic player in the global power balance. It sits next to one of the busiest trade routes in the world.

He said Prof. Peiris’ meeting with potential investors will have a cumulative impact and the outcome will be seen in the tourism and trade sectors as well.

Pledging strong support to Sri Lanka’s post conflict rebuilding efforts, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the Reconciliation Commission appointed by President Mahinda Rajapaksa ‘holds promise’ for advancing accountability issues in the country.

The US Secretary of State commended the Sri Lankan Government for the ‘tremendous progress’ made in resettling Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and its efforts to re-establish democracy in the North when she met External Affairs Minister Prof. G. L. Peiris in Washington DC on Friday.

“We are very supportive of the approach taken by Sri Lanka and the efforts made by the Government are commendable,” Ms. Clinton told reporters at a joint press conference after the bi-lateral meeting at the Department of State.

Referring to the Reconciliation Commission, she said that such Commissions of Inquiry have played an important role in advancing accountability issues and redressing wrongs in other countries.

She expressed these views despite a renewed call by the New York based Human Rights Watch, in a letter to the Secretary of State on Thursday to push for an international inquiry on war crimes on Sri Lanka.

It was the first meeting for Prof. Peiris with the US Secretary of State since his appointment as External Affairs Minister. Stressing that the US has long been a friend of Sri Lanka, she said that the US was pleased to help Sri Lanka’s rebuilding efforts, ‘after more than two decades of violence and terrorist activity that have deprived the Sri Lankan people the progress they deserve.’

She pledged continued development and humanitarian aid to Sri Lanka saying that an active US aid program has invested more than US $ 1.9 billion in Sri Lanka since 1956.

The US is Sri Lanka’s largest export trading partner. Their post conflict assistance has varied from demining, rebuilding schools and hospitals, jobs, training and livelihood support in the North.

The two counterparts also discussed the situation with regard to the IDPs where Clinton said, ‘There has been tremendous progress’, on the resettlement front. She also stressed the importance of safe, dignified and voluntary return to their homes.

“Sri Lanka has made progress, we continue to provide our support to safeguard the rights of IDPs and complete the relocation,” she said.

“After decades of LTTE rule in the North, the Sri Lankan Government is committed to re-establishing democracy. Many steps have been taken to return to democratic order,” the Secretary of State told reporters.

She said that Sri Lanka will remain a strong united country by drawing on the strengths of all its citizens.

Prof. Peiris said the Reconciliation Commission was given a mandate broad enough to address the accountability issues and this unit has to be allowed to begin its work without impediments. He welcomed the expertise and experience from the UN to this local effort.

He said the country was proud of what it has achieved within a short span of one year after eliminating terrorism and one of its key challenges would be to restore the electoral process and revive local government bodies in the North.

The LTTE had destroyed this set up and annihilated the moderate Tamil leadership.

He said the Government wants to provide ‘political space for the emergence of a legitimate democratic Tamil leadership,’ at local Government level.

Prof. Peiris said 70 percent of the emergency regulations that were in place during the conflict were scrapped by the Government and thanked her for lifting the travel advisory on Sri Lanka due to the improved security situation in the country.

The External Affairs Minister began his US tour with a meeting with UN Secretary General Banki Moon in New York on Monday. He also met the Chief of Staff Vijay Nambiar, and Undersecretary General Lynn Pascoe.

During his visit to Washington DC, Prof. Peiris met President Barack Obama’s national security adviser Gen. James Jones, Senior US Department of Defence officials and US Trade representatives and a host of representatives of the US Parliament.