US urges Sri Lanka to seek reconciliation

By FOSTER KLUG


Associated Press



The top U.S. diplomat for South Asia says Sri Lanka's failure to share power with minority Tamils following the end of a bloody 25-year civil war in May could lead to renewed violence.

In an interview Monday with The Associated Press, Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake also urged Nepal to stop squabbling and get to work on consolidating a peace process that ended a decade of fighting between Maoist guerrillas and government troops in 2006. Infighting, he said, could lead to dangerous instability.
On Sri Lanka, Blake expressed disappointment that President Mahinda Rajapaksa has indicated he will not pursue political reconciliation until after presidential elections are held, probably in January.
"The government needs to find a way to move more quickly than January 2010," Blake said from his office in the State Department. "Because the risk, of course, is that people will become disaffected and that will give new impetus to terrorism."
He said the government must make Tamils feel like they are part of the political process after a civil war that killed between 80,000 and 100,000 people. In that war, Tamil Tiger rebels fought for an independent homeland for ethnic minority Tamils.
Blake also said that Sri Lanka should allow more freedom of movement for the nearly 300,000 Tamils displaced by the war and confined to government camps. Some aid groups fear the camps are actually military-run internment centers designed to indefinitely hold the displaced.
Blake noted some progress on the matter, including Sri Lanka allowing about 10,000 displaced people to leave the camps and its pledge to let another 40,000 leave this month and to have the majority released by the end of the year. But, he said, the people in the camps were being "held against their will."
"They're not allowed to leave," Blake said. "It's important for them to have this freedom of movement."
The United States said Monday that it was donating $15 million in food aid to help Sri Lanka resettle some of the Tamils displaced by the war. The U.S. Agency for International Development said the aid will provide those returning to their homes with a six-month ration of essential foods.
Washington, Blake said, will not put conditions on humanitarian aid. But, he said, "longer term reconstruction assistance really will be dependent on the progress that they make" on resettling displaced people and in power sharing efforts.
On Nepal, Blake expressed worry that there has not been more progress toward implementing a 2006 peace agreement, specifically on the drafting of a new constitution and on integrating the Maoist and Nepalese armies.
"There's a sense of drift, and that drift can be very dangerous if the people of Nepal perceive that their elected leaders are not taking seriously their responsibilities. And so there's a risk of instability under those circumstances," Blake said.
He called on the Maoists and other parties to work together and stop squabbling, to "put national interests above narrow, partisan interests and really get down to business on these important issues."
As part of the peace process, thousands of ex-Maoist fighters in 2006 laid down their weapons. The fighters were supposed to be integrated into the national security forces, but little has been done to move toward that.
"Nepal has come so far," Blake said. "It would really be a shame to jeopardize the progress that has been made."
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