Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Robert Blake and U.S. Chargé d’Affaires in Sri Lanka James Moore met with 16 representatives of U.S.-based organizations representing members of the Tamil diaspora to discuss the humanitarian situation in Sri Lanka and prospects for political reconciliation, the US Sate Department said in a release.
At the discussion on Tuesday, Assistant Secretary Blake and Chargé Moore welcomed the opportunity to listen to the concerns and perspectives of the American Tamil diaspora community and to share the steps the United States is taking to address the humanitarian crisis.
The United States has provided $56 million in humanitarian assistance in 2009. While the Government of Sri Lanka has made some progress easing camp congestion, registering IDPs, and expanding access by humanitarian organizations, much remains to be done, Assistant Secretary Blake and Chargé Moore said.
The United States is urging the safe and speedy return of IDPs, continued access for international humanitarian organizations, and the registration and provision of national identification cards to IDPs, to help promote freedom of movement.
Assistant Secretary Blake and Chargé Moore underscored the importance of political reconciliation. The U.S. has stressed to the government that to achieve a lasting peace, it must promote justice and political reconciliation for all parties, dialogue with all parties, including Tamils inside and outside Sri Lanka on new mechanisms for devolving power, and improve human rights.
Assistant Secretary Blake and Chargé Moore recommended that the Government of Sri Lanka and the American Tamil diaspora community seek opportunities to engage one another on political reconciliation and the reconstruction of Sri Lanka.
Assistant Secretary Blake and Chargé Moore concluded by saying that they would like to continue the dialogue with the diaspora community and urged participants to continue to share feedback.
The discussion took place at the State Department with Chargé Moore through a digital video conference at the U.S. Embassy in Colombo, the State Department said.
Comments (3)
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New people and idelogists should emerge from our youth Diaspora. There are lot of youngsters with tons of energy and enthuasim. We must allow them to work in their own way but with clear goal. We must revise our policy and involve Tamil Diaspora Youth. Old policies and some unrealistic policies should be revised and re-written and passed onto Diaspora Youth to take this further.
All Tamils should work with unity, must forget the differences and past policies. It is true that we are the cause of our own distruction because of some selfish people. Tamils should learn from the history of Jews.
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Currently, it seems that GoSL and the god forsaken Indian establishment is hell bent on destroying the Tamil quench for Freedom. We could see, that they are trying to hood wink the IC under the guise of "Diaspora supporting the remenisance of LTTE". I just read an article sen to me from Norway and it stated that, a LTTE member who went together for the peace initiatives during 2004, may become the next leader and he is violant and do not support KP's moderate. Also, interestingly it also mentions that an Indian intelligence agreeing to the news item.
GoSL and the Indian establishment doing this, will divert the attention of the IC from the objectives the Tamils are yearning for. The war crimes, HR violations becomes secondary to Economy collaboration and Terrorism in the current (Geo) political state. Three years becomes a reality for those terrorising GoSL and Indian establishments.
Beside, not sure if any one noticed, soon after KP's arrest in malaysia, there was an artilce on the net that the Jaffna's Mobile Network is being taken care of by a malaysian establishment.
Last but least, we dispora what ever may happen with KP or who ever, but we should focus on what we want to achieve at the end of the day.