USA praises SL’s home-grown solutions

Assistant Secretary, Bureau of South, and Central Asian Affairs of the US State Department Robert O. Blake praised the government for implementing measures recommended by the country’s own investigative body Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission and appointing 350 Tamil-speaking police to serve in Jaffna.

While insisting that the United States is not holding Sri Lanka to any special standards, Blake said in an interview to AFP that probes into killings during the last stages of the war between the government forces and the LTTE need to be investigated, preferably by the government of Sri Lanka and its own institutions. The Assistant Secretary said the US would prefer to see Sri Lanka taking its own measures to handle those issues.  “It’s always best for a nation to take responsibility for these sensitive issues”.

Blake welcomed government’s initiatives to enter into a dialogue with the Tamil National Alliance to solve the minority community’s problems and hoped that the postponed third round of talks can be rescheduled as soon as possible.

The United States has welcomed the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission, Blake said, adding that the US is looking forward to the Commission’s report to be submitted to President Mahinda Rajapaksa in May.

The Assistant Secretary said since the end of the war in May 2009 the focus is on three primary issues, namely the resettlement of all internally displaced persons (IDPs) and all surrounding issues; reconciliation and accountability, and human rights.

While acknowledging that there is some progress in all three areas, the former Ambassador to Sri Lanka said more work needs to be done in each of the areas.

Pointing out that Sri Lanka is one of the countries in South Asia that has great promise, the Assistant Secretary said to truly realize its potential, Sri Lanka must achieve national reconciliation so that all citizens of Sri Lanka experience just and durable peace after the war.