US warns of renewed conflict risk if accountability not addressed

by admin
Mar 13, 2012
The US Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asia has stated that without accountability in Sri Lanka, new violence could arise on the island.

Speaking in Washington, Robert Blake stated that both reconciliation and accountability were in Sri Lanka’s best interests so that,
"they really can achieve peace and security and not sow anger in their own community that could give rise to new violence."
He then went on to say,
“Experience in many civil conflicts around the world has shown that countries that don't take adequate measures to address reconciliation and accountability frequently experience a regeneration of the insurgency that they faced.
We could see very much that similar situation in Sri Lanka."
The Assistant Secretary also commented on the militarisation of the North, stating that many Tamils feel that they remain under “military occupation” and called for devolution of power and increased control of policing powers to be given to the Tamil provinces.

His comments come as the UN Human Rights Council prepares to vote on a resolution on Sri Lanka next week. The US ambassador to the council, Eileen Donahoe, said that Sri Lanka had reacted "very negatively" to the resolution and has been fighting "tooth and nail" against it, but she expected it to pass.

Add new comment

About text formats

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Global and entity tokens are replaced with their values. Browse available tokens.

Restricted HTML

  • You can align images (data-align="center"), but also videos, blockquotes, and so on.
  • You can caption images (data-caption="Text"), but also videos, blockquotes, and so on.
  • Global and entity tokens are replaced with their values. Browse available tokens.
  • You can embed media items (using the <drupal-media> tag).

We need your support

Sri Lanka is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. Tamil journalists are particularly at threat, with at least 41 media workers known to have been killed by the Sri Lankan state or its paramilitaries during and after the armed conflict.

Despite the risks, our team on the ground remain committed to providing detailed and accurate reporting of developments in the Tamil homeland, across the island and around the world, as well as providing expert analysis and insight from the Tamil point of view

We need your support in keeping our journalism going. Support our work today.

link button