NEW YORK - With a four-year-old ceasefire
in Sri Lanka on the verge of crumbling, the United
States has offered to strengthen its military
assistance programs and increase training for
government forces if the country's rebel group
resumes its separatist war in the northern and
eastern provinces.
After meeting with
senior officials in Washington, Sri Lankan Foreign
Minister Mangala Samaraweera said the objective of his
trip
was to keep Washington abreast of "the current
status of the peace talks, where it has got
stalled, and the need for it to be resumed as
early as possible".
The Liberation Tigers
of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which has been declared a
foreign terrorist organization by the US State
Department, has been accused of several recent
attacks on Sri Lankan troops even while a
Norwegian-monitored ceasefire is on.
The
rebel group has been fighting for a separate Tamil
nation-state in the politically troubled northern
and eastern provinces.
Describing recent
LTTE attacks as "provocations of the highest
order", Samaraweera told Inter Press Service,
"These are very serious attacks on the ceasefire
agreement, which makes one wonder whether the
ceasefire agreement is in place or not."
The LTTE is also accused of attacking the
Norwegian-led Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM),
which has helped sustain the fragile ceasefire
over the past four years.
United Nations
Secretary General Kofi Annan expressed concern on
Monday about "the deteriorating security situation
in Sri Lanka" and deplored the attack on the
facilities of the SLMM.
"Escalating
violence in the past few months has put a severe
strain on the ceasefire that had ushered in a new
era of hope in Sri Lanka and brought significant
benefits for its people over the past four years.
The impact of renewed violence is once again being
felt by the civilian population," he said.
Addressing a meeting in Colombo, US
Ambassador Jeffrey Lunstead used "blunt language"
to warn the LTTE that the cost of a return to war
will be high.
"If the LTTE chooses to
abandon peace, however, we want it to be clear
they will face a stronger, more capable and more
determined Sri Lankan military," he said. He added
that US military assistance "is not given because
we anticipate or hope for a return to
hostilities".
The US has provided an
average of about US$500,000 to Sri Lanka every
year as military grants under the International
Military Education and Training Program (IMET),
compared with about $1.4 million annually to
neighboring India.
Washington also upped
its military credits under its Foreign Military
Financing program: from $496,000 in 2005 to an
estimated $1 million this year, compared with a
high of $2.5 million in 2004. These credits could
be used by Sri Lanka to buy either US weapons or
counter-terrorism equipment.
Annan said a
return to conflict will not resolve outstanding
differences between the parties. He strongly urged
the government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE "to shore
up the ceasefire, ensure respect for the human
rights of all Sri Lankans and urgently resume
their dialogue under the facilitation of the
Norwegian government".
Samaraweera said
the LTTE will continue to remain a designated
"foreign terrorist organization" (FTO) in the
United States despite intense lobbying by Sri
Lankan Tamil expatriate groups to overturn the
politically unpleasant designation.
The US
list includes more than 40 FTOs - ranging from
Peru's Shining Path and the New People's Army in
the Philippines to the Kurdistan Workers Party in
Turkey and the LTTE in Sri Lanka.
A
designated FTO may be dropped from the list after
a biennial review of its actions, or in the
alternative, the designation may be continued. But
recent violations of the ceasefire in Sri Lanka
make it unlikely that the LTTE will be removed
from the list any time soon.
Being
designated an FTO means first that it is illegal
for anyone in the United States to provide any
financial support to it; second, US institutions
may block funds of FTOs and their agents; and
third, FTO representatives could be denied entry
visas to the United States.
The continued
designation of the LTTE as an FTO puts it on a
tight leash in the United States - although funds
have been transferred either as "charitable
contributions" to LTTE front organizations in Sri
Lanka or for post-tsunami reconstruction.
Samaraweera said the United States has
been duly warned about both loopholes.
The
US is also sending Nicholas Burns, under secretary
of state for political affairs, to get a
first-hand view of the ground situation in Sri
Lanka - particularly in the north and the east.
Asked whether the Sri Lankan government
will, at some point, draw a line, Samaraweera
said: "Absolutely. As a responsible government, we
will remain restrained and patient. We will
certainly not fall into the trap of being provoked
- as the LTTE may be hoping we will." But at the
same time, he warned, "Even patience has its
limits."
He told US officials that the
Tigers should remain on the list of FTOs as long
as they only "pay lip service to a political
settlement while doing exactly the opposite", he
said. They should continue to be labeled
terrorists, which they are, he said.
"But
having said that, if they are willing to talk and
negotiate, and come to a settlement, then I think
at that point in time, the United States could
review the status of the LTTE.
"I am not
saying that the LTTE should forever remain a
terrorist organization. But the day they change,
the world must also change. But until such time,
they should be kept on the US list of foreign
terrorist organizations."
Sri Lanka is one
of the oldest functioning democracies in Asia, and
enjoyed universal voting rights as early as the
1930s, Samaraweera said.
At a time when
the United States is promoting new democracies
globally, it is also imperative to nurture
existing democracies, and to protect democracies
under siege, as in Sri Lanka, he said.
