An International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan to Sri Lanka will be considered, but the international community needs to make an assessment of the post-conflict situation in the island, US state department spokesman Ian Kelly said.
US secretary of state Hilary Clinton said on May 14, that it was not an "appropriate" time to consider a 1.9 billion US dollar IMF loan for Sri Lanka.
US officials expressed concern about the government's continued use of heavy weapons on an area 'safe zone,' densely popualted with civilians, despite a commitment to show restraint and that prompted the US administration to use its influence at the IMF to delay the emergency IMF loan request by Sri Lanka.
At the end of the conflict, "I think that’s something that we’re reviewing right now," Kelly told reporters at the press briefing on Thursday.
"As I said before, we remain concerned about lack of access to the former conflict zone and lack of access for humanitarian aid."
But as we go forward and we engage with the Government of Sri Lanka, I mean, this will be something that, of course, we’ll consider, Kelly said.
On a question on linking IMF loan to humanitarian situation Kelly said, "Ah. Well, I think that we’re – this is just a couple days after the end of this quarter-century-long conflict."
"We still need to make an assessment. We need to – or I shouldn’t say – when I say we, I should say the international community needs to make an assessment of exactly what happened and consult with the Sri Lankan Government on the way forward. But again, we’re only a couple days after"
Kelly said that we need to take things a step at a time. We need to focus on the humanitarian situation, and we need to focus on starting a political reconciliation process. Once we take those steps, we can start looking at the broader issue of – broader economic and trade issues.
On humanitarian aid to Sri Lanka, Kelly opined that unlike Pakistan, in the case of Sri Lanka, US believe the best way to address this is through the international community, with the UN in the lead, but added that they are constantly updating US assistance to Sri Lanka via USAID.
He said that United States believes, the end of the conflict presents an opportunity to seek inter-communal peace and build a democratic and tolerant Sri Lanka. And the future peace in Sri Lanka may depend on how the government handles the immediate aftermath of the war.
Also Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday telephoned Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa to personaly appeal the need for post-conflict power sharing that includes minority Tamils and stress the importance of "healing and reconciliation."
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