“Successful implementation of these projects and the achievement of long-term stability in the East will require addressing several challenges. These include: reining in human rights violations, including disappearances, abductions, and extra-judicial killings; holding human rights violators accountable for their crimes; ending recruitment of child soldiers by paramilitary groups and ensuring the release of existing child soldiers; disarming the TMVP’s armed cadres and integrating them into society; and fully implementing the 13th Amendment.”
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by DCM James R. Moore
(July 06, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Thank you for inviting me today to participate in this distinguished panel.
The development and stabilization of the Eastern Province is an extremely important challenge – and opportunity – for the government and people of Sri Lanka. It is, likewise, a top priority for our Embassy, as I remarked at the dedication earlier this week of the new bridge at Arugam Bay that was funded by USAID. We look forward to working closely with the Sri Lankan Government, both at the local and national levels, and with development partners and civil society to help to bring progress and prosperity to this neglected region, which has such tremendous potential.
We believe the Eastern Province will prove to be an important test case for Sri Lanka. In the East, the Government has an opportunity to demonstrate its commitment to full implementation of the 13th Amendment. And it has an historic opportunity to bring real change to a long troubled part of the country.
The elections in the East in May represent an important step toward devolving power to the provincial level and implementing the 13th Amendment.
Elections are seldom perfect, and these were no exception. Many observers and parties have expressed concern about intimidation of voters and candidates in the weeks before the elections and occurrences of voting irregularities on election day. We have urged the Government to treat these allegations seriously and to investigate them fully. What is most important, in our view, is the judgment of the people of the East of the outcome of the elections, and their commitment to moving forward together to meet the significant challenges of governance, personal security, and economic livelihoods that impact on their daily lives.
One thing on which I believe we can all agree is that the Tamil, Muslim, and Sinhalese communities of the East will need to work together if stability and progress are to be achieved.
My colleague, USAID Director Rebecca Cohn, will speak in some detail about the assistance programs the United States Government will undertake in the East in the coming months and years. I would simply emphasize that USAID’s strategy in Sri Lanka will focus very heavily on the East.
We will work to improve public trust of -- and relations with -- the police through law enforcement training. Law enforcement officers in the East will receive training in community policing, language skills, and human rights.
We will also work to improve the economic outlook for people in the East, including by providing conflict-affected youth with vocational and life skills training.
And we plan to work with the central, provincial and local governments on capacity building and communication with the public. These efforts are designed to improve transparency and enhance the public’s trust in the government.
Successful implementation of these projects and the achievement of long-term stability in the East will require addressing several challenges. These include: reining in human rights violations, including disappearances, abductions, and extra-judicial killings; holding human rights violators accountable for their crimes; ending recruitment of child soldiers by paramilitary groups and ensuring the release of existing child soldiers; disarming the TMVP’s armed cadres and integrating them into society; and fully implementing the 13th Amendment.
We commend the progress already made by the government in addressing these challenges and we look forward to our continuing dialogue on them.
Most of all, I would like to emphasize that the United States is committed to doing whatever it can to help support stability, security, democratic governance, economic growth, and development in the East. It is an opportunity that is simply too important to miss.
(Remarks by DCM James R. Moore to the Sri Lanka Economic Summit 2008
Session 6 - Revival of the East: Challenges and Opportunities July 3, 2008 – 4-6pm )
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