Sri Lanka's Minister of External Affairs, Professor G.L. Peiris, launched a four-day Washington visit starting May 18th with Capitol Hill meetings and a spirited talk at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He met Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and discussed agenda which will benefit both countries.
Delivering a speech at Center for Strategic and International Studies he said that there is unprecedented confidence, which is the result of durable peace combined with a degree of political stability the country has not enjoyed for quarter of a century. Since then, the country has experienced no terrorist incidents, and “a change of mood in the country. A mood of optimism, of expectation.
Prof. Peiris noted that the government has successfully resettled most of the 297,000people who were displaced by the 25-year conflict. At the same time, he said, the government has launched an ambitious reconstruction program to help areas of Sri Lanka, particularly the North, where the fighting was heaviest.
“We have achieved a great deal in an extremely short period,” he said. “I think Sri Lanka has to be given due credit for this achievement.”
Creating jobs, he said, has been a vital component of the resettlement and reconciliation effort.
After a year of peace, “Sri Lanka is back on the world's radar,” Minister Peiris said. He noted that tourism is rapidly increasing, as is foreign investment.
“We have shed the over-powering constraints that have inhibited any kind of development,” he said. “Hotels are a coming back. Companies are putting up factories in Trincomalee and Kilinochchi.”
During the CSIS discussion, the minister was asked about a recent International Crisis Group report alleging that war crimes may have been committed in the final days of the conflict against the terrorist group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
A crisis group representative stated that the government failed to respond to the ICG prior to publication of the report, although given an opportunity to do so.
Minister Peiris replied that the government was never given a copy of the report in advance. “How can we give any response when we have no indication of the evidence the ICG purports to have?” he asked. He also noted that the report itself does not offer any real evidence crimes, just allegations and accounts from unnamed sources, many of them made previously.
Professor Peiris also criticized the unspecific nature of the report, which noted that tens of thousands of people were wounded or killed in the fighting. “What is tens of thousands?” he asked, “Is that 10,000, 50,000, 90,000?”
In that vein, the minister noted that non-government organizations are not the “International Community,” and that the United Nations Human Rights Council “debated these matters for three days,” and concluded that it would not take action.
During the discussion, Minister Peiris also discussed possible changes to Sri Lanka's constitution, including the establishment of a bicameral legislature and amendments to the electoral system.
Earlier Tuesday, the Minister and Ambassador Wickramasuriya met with Rep. Howard Berman, who chairs the House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs, as well as Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY), the Chairwoman of the Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs of the House Committee on Appropriations.
The Minister updated the members of Congress on the current situation in Sri Lanka, informing them of the nation's unprecedented economic development and process of reconciliation.
Head of Asian Development Bank Mr. Haruhiko Kuroda visited Sri Lanka to evaluate the postwar reconstruction and development activities, and met President Rajapakse. Also present at the discussion were ministers Dinesh Gunawardena and Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena and deputy ministers Dr. Sarath Amunugama and Chandrasiri Gajadheera as well as treasury secretary Dr. P.B. Jayasundara and Central Bank governor Ajith NIvard Cabraal. Mr. Kuroda is scheduled to make field trips and meet beneficiaries of ADB-supported projects in the northern and eastern provinces. The Manila-based bank has approved 212 million dollars in loans for Sri Lanka in the current year.
Hundreds of protesters took to the streets in the capital Colombo Tuesday demanding Sri Lanka's government abandon a proposed trade pact with neighbouring India.
President Mahinda Rajapakse met the demonstrators at his tightly-guarded Temple Trees residence in Colombo and vowed he would not enter any pact that was harmful to the island's economic interests.
"Professionals, including doctors and engineers, came to Temple Trees and protested against the CEPA with India," the president's office said, referring to the proposed Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement. It said the president, who is also the finance minister, assured them that he would not go ahead with "any pact or agreement" that was not in the best interest of the island.
"The government will not enter into any pact or agreement that is inimical to its people and economic interests," the statement said. The protests came two weeks ahead of a proposed visit by Rajapakse to India.
The CEPA had been proposed almost two years ago but had been held up due to opposition from Sri Lankan business leaders who fear that the island could be swamped by cheaper Indian services.
The two South Asian neighbours entered a free trade deal in 1998 limiting tariff concessions to goods, but the CEPA covers services such as banking and allows greater cooperation between customs administrations.
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U.S. LIFTS SRI LANKA TRAVEL WARNING
The U.S. State Department announced Wednesday that it was lifting its travel advisory on Sri Lanka, citing the peaceful atmosphere that has taken hold a year after Sri Lanka's defeat of terrorism.
“The Travel Warning issued for Sri Lanka on November 19, 2009 has been cancelled, effective May 26, 2010,” the State Department said in an announcement. “Department of State has cancelled the Travel Warning for Sri Lanka due to improvements in safety and security conditions throughout the country.”
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