Sri Lankan diaspora in US briefs Congress :
SL’s reconciliation on track - SL-American voters
* LLRC bringing country together
* Discuss peace, redevelopment,
economic progress
* Includes more than 100 meetings
Nearly 100 Sri Lankan - Americans throughout the United States
travelled to Capitol Hill, Monday to brief Congress on reconciliation
and post-conflict progress in Sri Lanka as part of Sri Lankan-American
Day on Capitol Hill.
The meetings with member of Congress and their staff were organized
by the Sri Lankan community, with the help of the Sri Lankan embassy in
Washington, DC.
The sessions focused on economic and social progress in Sri Lanka two
years after it successfully ended its war against terrorism.
Members of the Sri Lankan diaspora in the US met with one-fifth of
the Congress in just one day, pressing for a broader understanding of
Sri Lanka’s decades-long conflict and its post-conflict reconciliation
efforts.
Rep. Robert Aderholt, (R-Ala.,), Co-Chair of the Sri Lanka
Congressional Caucus, said that he had visited Sri Lanka following the
devastation caused by the 2004 tsunami.
“I don’t think I would recognize Sri Lanka today given the progress
that has taken place since then,” he said. “It is clearly a very dynamic
country where a lot has changed for the better.”
Aderholt and Rep. Steve Chabot, (R-Ohio), Chairman of the House
subcommittee on the Middle East and South East Asia, and Congressional
staff members also visited with the diaspora during a luncheon reception
in the U.S. House of Representatives Rayburn Office Building.
Monday’s event was the first-ever Sri Lankan-American Day on Capitol
Hill. The large turnout demonstrated the support among the Sri Lankans
in America for Sri Lanka’s post-conflict programs, lasting peace and
reconciliation efforts.
The U.S. and Sri Lanka, Asia’s oldest democracy, have had diplomatic
relations for 63 years - since Sri Lanka gained independence from
Britain in 1948 - and trade relations for more than 200 years.
Sri Lanka experienced 26 years of conflict when the terrorist group
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) began a campaign of terror
against the government and people of Sri Lanka. The conflict ended in
May 2009 with the LTTE’s defeat.
Diaspora members told members of Congress that Sri Lanka’s Lessons
Learnt and Reconciliation Commission(LLRC) is examining events of the
conflict, with a broad mandate to pursue rights violations. They argued
that an international investigation of the conflict would be a set-back
for reconciliation among Sri Lankans.
The U.S. Agency for International Development has a number of
projects underway in Sri Lanka to aid post-conflict development, and the
U.S. has provided de-mining aid to Sri Lanka in its effort to remove an
estimated 1.2 million LTTE landmines in the North.
Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to the U.S. Jaliya Wickramasuriya, hosted a
June 12 reception at the ambassador’s official residence for the
visiting diaspora members, as well as the Capitol Hill luncheon.
The Congressional meetings gave the diaspora the chance to register
objections to false accusations against Sri Lanka, including those
contained in a resolution entered by a freshman member of the House of
Representatives.
Constituents told members of Congress and their staffs that the
defeat of the LTTE meant that rights were restored to all 21 million Sri
Lankans who suffered under LTTE terrorism.
There has not been a single death due to terrorism since May 2009.
“By ending terrorism in May 2009, Sri Lanka restored a basic human right
to all Sri Lankans,” Ambassador Wickramasuriya told the Capitol Hill
luncheon guests. “That human right is the freedom from fear — one of the
four important freedoms that President Roosevelt spoke about in January
1941.
“All of us are concerned about human rights. But this basic human
right is vital to any society.”
The diaspora, consisting of Tamils, Sinhalese, Muslims and others,
represented 25 states. They included business owners, professional and
academics.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government has focused extensive
redevelopment and reconstruction efforts on areas most affected by the
conflict in Northern Sri Lanka. Work there includes repairs to roads and
bridges, water and irrigation systems, hospitals, clinics and schools,
new home construction and a massive effort to remove an estimated 1.2
million LTTE landmines.
Sri Lanka has resettled most of the 300,000 people who were displaced
by the fighting. It has also rehabilitated about 1,000 LTTE child
soldiers, reuniting them with their families, and it has granted amnesty
to more than 11,000 LTTE combatants. About half that number have been
returned to civil society after job-training and educational tutoring,
with the rest to be released over the coming months.
The United States, Ambassador Wickramasuriya noted, supports such
internal fact-finding efforts as an important step in post-conflict
reconciliation. “The Sri Lankan people feel strongly that they must
resolve these issues among themselves,” the ambassador said. “An outside
investigation could halt reconciliation.” |