http://www.priu.gov.lk/news_update/Current_Affairs/ca201106/20110611government_restored_vital.htm

Government restored vital human rights to all- SL Ambassador tells East-West Centre

“Peace and freedom from fear and violence are very basic human rights. The Government of Sri Lanka restored those vital human rights to all Sri Lankans: Tamils, Sinhalese, Muslims, Burghers and many others, when it defeated the terrorists once and for all,” said Sri Lankan Ambassador to the United States Jaliya Wickramasuriya, addressing the East-West Centre, Honolulu, Hawaii.“Sri Lanka prides itself as a democracy. We also pride ourselves for having defeated a terrorist group that the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) called the world’s worst. And we pride ourselves on freeing our people and helping them to overcome the hardship caused by years of strife.”Critics of the country are distorting the facts on Sri Lanka’s 2009 victory over terrorism. The resettlement of civilians displaced by the conflict has been well in place since the end of the conflict, the ambassador told the East-West Center, on June 2, 2011.Ambassador Wickramasuriya noted that the armed forces exercised the maximum restraint and maintained a zero-civilian-casualties policy during the humanitarian mission to rescue the civilians from the clutches of the LTTE terrorism. “The destruction of a relatively small band of terrorists freed my country, and its people, to live and prosper in peace as they have every right to do”. And now they are doing it, and doing it well, he added.He said that Sri Lanka’s economy recorded a GDP growth rate of 8% in 2010 while unemployment and inflation remained low. Tourism increased by 50%, and is blooming rapidly this year. Foreign investment is expected to reach $1 billion in 2011.“Sri Lanka has received important financial support from the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and Asian Development Bank,” the Ambassador further noted. “The IMF, in particular, monitors our economy and has given us consistent high marks. The World Bank has also reported that Sri Lanka is moving from a developing to a middle-income country”.Elaborating on the post-conflict peace-building tasks in the Northern and Easters parts of Sri Lanka, the Ambassador referred to the comprehensive and strenuous efforts made by the Government in the fields of resettlement, rehabilitation, livelihood-support and infrastructure development. The economy and living conditions in these areas are improving with the construction of new homes, hospitals, schools, roads, bridges, railways, water systems, and the supply of electricity. The Government has resettled almost all the 300,000 IDPs in a record-breaking short period of time. “We have rehabilitated more than 1,000 child soldiers kidnapped by the terrorists. They are with their families now. We have given 11,000 former-terrorists amnesty and rehabilitation, which includes job training and tutoring. Nearly 7,000 have already been returned to society.”He added that Sri Lanka has established an independent mechanism for reconciliation, the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission, "to examine what remedial measures we can undertake as a civilized society and a nation with strength of character."“Sri Lanka has every right to examine the conflict it just endured,” he said, “and to use what is found by this independent commission to bring about reconciliation, heal the wounds of war and help Sri Lankans of all backgrounds to move forward and share in the future benefits of peace.”Sri Lanka today, the Ambassador said, is moving beyond the shadow of the long conflict against the LTTE and entering an era of permanent peace and growing prosperity.During his visit to Hawaii, Ambassador Wickramasuriya also met with top officers at the U.S. Pacific Command, scholars at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, and several top-ranking state officials including the Governor of Hawaii and the mayor of Honolulu.