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Govt will continue efforts to bring lasting peace - PM

Bharatha Malawaraarachchi reporting from Tokyo

While reiterating that the efforts towards a lasting peace will never be given up, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday assured that the Government is pushing the economy ahead with its own plans.

He was making the opening statement at the Tokyo Conference on Reconstruction and Development of Sri Lanka. The Premier followed the speech of Japanese Premier who opened the conference.

Premier Wickremesinghe recalled that 18 months ago, people of Sri Lanka gave a mandate to his Government to recapture lost opportunities." They set us the task of delivering in three critical areas." The first was to lay a foundation for a lasting peace." We had become a nation filled with ethnic hatred and bitterness, a nation at war destroying itself and its people." he added.

Premier Wickremesinghe noted that the second was to rebuild an economy which was on its knees. Third was to resolve the problems of a deeply political society where consensus between political parties was more words than deed and where elections had become increasingly violent and discontent.

While appreciating the way in which President Kumaratunga continues to support the peace process in principle, the Premier said: "It is with such support that we persist in working on building bridges of understanding."

"When we took office the rationale behind our thinking on the peace process was based on humanitarian needs. We decided that to wait for a political settlement before rehabilitating the North and East was unacceptable. We agreed that while negotiating, if the funds could be found - we should try to give back the lives to our people in those war-torn areas."

"This was of course, a high risk strategy because in peace processes elsewhere donors always wanted to see a peace agreement before committing funds. It was even high risk because with every peace process there are ups and downs. " Premier Wickremesinghe noted.

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