19 February 2003
U.S. Backs Sri Lanka's Peace Process
(State's Armitage offers more aid if gov't, rebels consolidate peace)
(1130)
By Elizabeth Kellerher
Washington File Special Correspondent
Washington -- The United States will give "significant further
assistance" to Sri Lanka, if its government quickly moves to protect
the rights of all Sri Lankans and if rebels stop smuggling weapons and
recruiting child-soldiers, said Deputy Secretary of State Richard
Armitage
Armitage, appearing February 14 at the Center for Strategic and
International Studies, a policy research organization, spoke of new
U.S. aid on top of earlier pledges of $8 million for humanitarian
relief and more than $1 million to help remove the 700,000 land mines
in Sri Lanka. He stopped short of specifying an amount and said the
aid would depend on peace progress accomplished by Sri Lanka's
government and the ethnic-minority Tamil rebels, the Liberation Tamil
Tigers of Eelam (LTTE).
The government and rebels agreed to a cease-fire February 22, 2002,
ending two decades of fighting that claimed 65,000 lives and left the
island country physically and economically devastated.
Armitage spoke movingly of a recent visit by helicopter to the Jaffna
Peninsula, an area blasted and pockmarked by bomb craters.
In a separate written message delivered to the conference by Sri
Lanka's ambassador to the United States Devinda Subasinghe, Sri Lankan
Minister of Economic Reform Milanda Moragoda said the country's
economy is in tatters and that "the majority of our people are in a
poverty trap."
The peace process has allowed refugees to flow back into the country,
creating an additional economic and humanitarian burden, Armitage
noted. He said that some 300,000 displaced people have returned to the
northern and eastern parts of Sri Lanka -- areas that lack sanitation,
clean water and other basic amenities.
The fighting parties' resolution to sustain peace "can only be reached
with the help of multilateral resources, both moral and material," he
said.
The deputy secretary's remarks came during what he admitted was a
"busy time of high stakes diplomacy" for the United States. Washington
has been under a heightened alert for terrorist attacks, and Armitage
had testified before Congress about Iraq and North Korea in preceding
days.
But Armitage said he welcomed the chance to reflect on Sri Lanka
because "this may be a key moment" in settling the conflict there. The
cease-fire between Sri Lanka's government and the rebels has ended
"years of death and years of destruction," he said.
December was a "watershed," he said, referring to a December 5
statement in which the rebels gave up their long-held demand for a
separate state and instead called for "internal self-determination
based on a federal structure within a united Sri Lanka."
There is now a "pull of opportunity" to commit human and financial
resources to Sri Lanka, and unlike earlier attempts to establish
long-term peace, this time "it can be done," he said.
Armitage said by June, when international donors will meet in Tokyo,
both the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tigers will have to make
"hard choices and compromises ... if they want to meet their ambitions
for international support."
He outlined the steps each side must take.
The LTTE, which has a violent history of guerrilla warfare and suicide
bombings, "has often pledged to stop the recruitment of child
soldiers," Armitage said, "but this time they have to prove that they
can carry through and will carry through on that pledge."
The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF)
has complained that child recruitment by the LTTE has continued since
the cease-fire.
Further, Armitage warned that the rebels will have to respect the
rights of other ethnic and religious groups -- including Muslims and
Sinhalese -- living in northern and eastern areas it controls.
But self-imposed restrictions by the LTTE on its arms supply is most
important to the United States, Armitage said. He said he was troubled
by a recent incident in which a boat manned by an LTTE crew was caught
smuggling weapons onto the island. The boat was subsequently blown up
by its crew, who died in the blast. This "called into question the
LTTE's commitment" to the peace process, Armitage said. The Tigers
must honor the cease-fire agreement and "down the road" accept
complete disarmament, he said.
Armitage held out a carrot to the LTTE: the Tigers "must publicly
unequivocally renounce terrorism and prove that its days of violence
are over," but if it does so the United States will consider removing
the group from its list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations, he said.
Sri Lanka's government also must prove its commitment to peace,
Armitage said, if more help is to come from the United States. He
asked the government to move forward as one, to put aside contentious
political conflicts between Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayaka
and President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, who are from
different political parties.
In addition to healing internal political rifts, the government must
reach out to all the diverse ethnic groups, classes, castes and
religions in the country, Armitage said. Its history of favoring the
majority Sinhalese culture -- an ethnic group that comprises
three-fourths of the population -- must end, he said. Armitage called
on leaders to protect the "full range of human rights for all the
people of Sri Lanka." As refugees return to the northern and eastern
areas, the government must "hold officials accountable for their
conduct" toward them, he warned.
He also called on the government to "institute reforms that address
the legitimate aspirations of the Tamil people." Specifically, he
called for changes in policies that restrict fishing rights of many
Tamil fisherman trying to earn a living. "Tamils deserve the simple
right to stay in their own homes and to pursue a living," he said.
Finally, Armitage called on President Kumaratunga to forgive the LTTE
for its past atrocities. Noting that Kumaratunga herself has been a
victim who lost loved ones to the violence, Armitage asked her to find
a "justice that falls somewhere between retribution and impunity."
After a year of cease-fire in Sri Lanka, tourism has improved and, in
the most recent quarter, the Sri Lankan economy grew 5.3 percent
compared to negative growth a year earlier, according to Economic
Reform Minister Moragoda. But he said, "Without the international
community investing political and economic capital in this process, it
is doomed to fail."
The United States will do its part to keep the international
community, led by Norway, cohesive and firm in its purpose to help Sri
Lanka, Armitage told his audience. He praised Norway's leadership in
negotiating peace and organizing donors. "Where the Norwegians led and
where they lead, the United States is delighted to follow," Armitage
said.
(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International
Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site:
http://usinfo.state.gov)
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