GL tells Washington gathering:

Lanka exuding confidence

*NGOs not ‘int’l communities’

*Scoffs at war crime charges

*Shift in mood with return to peace

Philip FERNANDO in Washington

External Affairs Minister Prof G.L. Peiris told a packed audience at the Center for Strategic International Studies (CSIS) that Sri Lanka is showing unprecedented confidence, which is the result of durable peace combined with a degree of political stability the country has not enjoyed for quarter of a century.

It is a very laudable record, he said. Sri Lanka had not experienced terrorist incidents since end of the war and “a change of mood in the country- a mood of optimism, of expectation” is present, he added.

Professor Peiris, launched a four-day Washington visit Tuesday with Capitol Hill meetings and a spirited talk at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Minister Peiris will meet State Secretary Hillary Clinton Friday. The Minister was accompanied by Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to the United States Jaliya Wickramasuriya. The Minister said the Government has resettled most of the 297,000 people displaced by the 25-year conflict.

The Government has also launched an ambitious reconstruction program to help areas, particularly the North, he said.

“We have achieved a great deal in an extremely short period,” he said. “I think Sri Lanka has to be given due credit for this achievement.”

Creating jobs, he said, has been a vital component of the resettlement and reconciliation effort.

After a year of peace, “Sri Lanka is back on the world’s radar,” Minister Peiris said. He noted that tourism is rapidly increasing, as is foreign investment.

“We have shed the over-powering constraints that have inhibited any kind of development,” he said. “Hotels are coming back. Companies are putting up factories in Trincomalee and Kilinochchi.”

During the CSIS discussion, the Minister was asked about a recent International Crisis Group report alleging that war crimes may have been committed in the final days of the conflict against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

A crisis group representative stated that the Government failed to respond to the ICG prior to publication of the report, although given an opportunity to do so.

Minister Peiris replied that the Government was never given a copy of the report in advance.

“How can we give any response when we have no indication of the evidence the ICG purports to have?” he asked.

The Minister also noted that the report itself does not offer any real evident crimes, just allegations and accounts from unnamed sources, many of them made previously. Professor Peiris also criticized the unspecific nature of the report, which noted that tens of thousands of people were wounded or killed in the fighting. “What is tens of thousands?” he asked, “Is that 10,000, 50,000, 90,000?”

In that vein, the Minister noted that non-government organizations are not the “International Community,” and that the United Nations Human Rights Council “debated these matters for three days,” and concluded that it would not take action.

Minister Peiris also discussed possible changes to Sri Lanka’s constitution, including the establishment of a bicameral legislature and amendments to the electoral system.

Earlier, Tuesday, the Minister and Sri Lankan Ambassador to US Jaliya Wickramasuriya met Rep. Howard Berman, who chairs the House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs, as well as Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY), the Chairperson of the Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs of the House Committee on Appropriations.

The Minister updated the members of Congress on the current situation in Sri Lanka, informing them of the nation’s unprecedented economic development and process of reconciliation.

Minister Peiris will also meet members of Congress and U.S. government officials informing them of the nation’s economic development and process reconciliation, in particular the appointment of a Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission in Sri Lanka.

CSIS is one of Washington’s premier think tanks, specializing in foreign affairs and security issues. Its staff includes many former government officials, including former US Ambassador to Sri Lanka Teresita Schaffer who moderated the discussion. The audience for Minister Peiris’ talk included government officials, members of non-governmental organizations, the media and academics.