Outgoing US envoy Butenis calls on Basil, commends resettlement of IDPs

Ambassador of the United State of America to Sri Lanka Patricia A. Butenis last week paid a courtesy call on Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa to bid farewell at the end of her tenure in Sri Lanka.

According to a statement issued by the Ministry,

Butenis had said she came to Sri Lanka when the internal conflict was prevailing and working in Sri Lanka was an exciting job at that time. Sri Lanka has achieved many things after the end of conflict and now economy is progressing well.

Basil Rajapaksa said ambassador Butenis was very cooperative in North East resettlement and rehabilitation work from the very inception and thanked for the services she rendered for that. “When we started resettlement work, there were lot of criticism and misinterpretation. We said we will resettle those more than 300000 IDPS within three years, then they said we are going to keep them in IDP camps for three years. Despite all these criticism and misinterpretations we were able to settle the issue successfully,” the Minister said.

Butenis said, “Providing facilities for more than 300,000 IDPS and resettling them were a big task. But you and your team had handled the situation extremely well.”

Responding to an enquiry by Butenis , Minister Rajapaksa said, “As the president  Mahinda Rajapaska has stated recently, election for the  Northern provincial council will be held in September next year. In the Northern Province, we have not had any democratic institution functioning for nearly 30 years. The first Provincial Council election for the North has to be perfect and transparent. We don’t want to have an election and then get blamed for the imperfections that presently exist on the ground there.

The voters list was not amended until last year because, a person will not qualify to vote if he is not living in a given house in the area. In 2011, the Elections Commissioner, correctly updated the list to

exclude those living overseas or in other parts of the country. Unfortunately, some parties alleged that we have deleted the names.

We have to create the proper environment for the IDPs to. It is the duty of the Government to create such an environment before calling for elections. Otherwise, we will be blamed for depriving displaced

persons of their right to vote. It will be said that the displaced persons have not only lost their properties but their right to vote in a free and fair manner. The President and Defence Secretary are both very keen to have an election. But as a politician who visits the North very frequently, I know the environment is not yet conducive for a proper election. I think before 2013 September – that is the deadline – we can have it.”

The Minister added that post-conflict development process in North- Eastern provinces as well as in other parts of the country is smoothly continuing and country is already enjoying the benefits of some of these projects. Now Sri Lanka has self sufficient in rice, the staple food of the country and in commodities such as black gram and Maize. There were some problems in dairy sector since some companies stopped collecting milk from dairy farmers, but we could overcome that problem within short period of time.

Butenis was nominated by President Barack Obama as the US Ambassador to the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka and the Republic of Maldives on 27 May, 2009. She was confirmed by the Senate on 4 August, 2009 and sworn in on 19 August, 2009. She is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, rank of Career Minister. Prior to this assignment, Ambassador Butenis served as the Deputy

Chief of Mission at the US Embassy in Baghdad from 2007-2009. From 2006-2007, she served as Ambassador to Bangladesh and from 2004-2006 as Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Embassy in Islamabad.