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| Mr Yasushi Akashi, Japan's special envoy to Sri Lanka reassured President Rajapakse his country's continuing support for Sri Lanka despite spiralling human rights violations by the latter. |
Japan is the single largest donor to Sri Lanka, and provides nearly two thirds of all international aid to the island. It has contributed 63 percent of total bilateral aid received by the country since 2003. Japan is also one of the Co-Chairs of the 2003 Aid Sri Lanka Conference along with the US, the EU and Norway that backed the peace process.
When asked about the forced eviction and deportation of Tamils from Colombo, Akashi stated that “these certainly did not accord with the "values of a civilised society", but it was natural that these values sometimes suffered and were likely to be given "second place" in a country fighting terrorism”.
Japan is the only co-chair that has not condemned the deportation of Tamils from Colombo on June 7.
Japan is the only co-chair that has not condemned the deportation of Tamils from Colombo on June 7.
Whilst reassuring continued assistance to Sri Lanka Akashi was quoted as saying, “we have concerns and guidelines. We are for the rule of law, democracy, human rights and security,"
The 2003 Tokyo declaration linked aid to progress in the peace process, but according to Kyodo News Akashi justified continuing assistance to Sri Lanka by staying “Japan does not want victims of the war to pay the price for the problems in the peace process”
Other donor countries, such as EU and the US, have reduced their aid to Sri Lanka based on the country’s poor rights record.
Over the past few months, number of governmental and non-governmental organizations, have condemned the increasing violence in the country, and the deterioration of the peace process.
However, Akashi claimed that “it is difficult to measure or "quantify" progress in the peace process in an ever changing and complex conflict situation”,
In a donor conference held in 2003 donor countries pledged $4.5 billion dollars to Sri Lanka, which was conditional upon progress in the peace process. However, most of this fund has already been dispersed despite the failing peace process.
Akashi acknowledged that there were ‘deficiencies and shortcomings’ in regard to human rights in Sri Lanka, but he got the impression that these were being addressed by the government of the land.
However, his statement contradicts the report published, last week, by the international human rights panel - International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP) - appointed by the international community to investigate Sri Lanka’s handling of human rights abuses.
In the highly critical report IIGEP has concluded that, Sri Lanka has shown hardly any progress in dealing with human rights violations. In addition, the report went on to state Sri Lanka lacked proper procedures to deal with rights issues.
When Akashi arrived in Sri Lanka on Tuesday, he said he found the atmosphere "heavy and depressing with a sense of crisis and tension. But at the end of the visit following talks with President Mahinda Rajapakse, he is leaving with a "certain amount of hope and optimism about the future of the country, reported the Kyodo News.
Akashi did not meet the representatives of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) or the Tamil parliamentarians. The LTTE confirms that they were not approached regarding any possible visit to Vanni by the visiting envoy. This was Akashi’s fourteenth visit to the country since the peace process of 2002.
