US cannot afford to "lose" Sri Lanka - Senate committee report

(By : Dr. Chandrani Gunaratna )

Sri Lanka is increasingly aligning towards the Asian powerhouses like China and politically and economically distancing from the West as Western countries increasingly criticizing Sri Lankan Government's handling of the war and human rights record, the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations said.

In a report titled "Sri Lanka: Recharting U.S. Strategy after the War" and released today by the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations headed by the democratic Senator John Kerry said this strategic shift in policy of Sri Lanka will have consequences for U.S. interests in the region.

Sri Lanka, being located at the center of crucial maritime trading routes in the Indian Ocean connecting Europe and the Middle East to China and the rest of Asia has great potential to affect the stability of India, the report warned.

Considering the strategic position of Sri Lanka and its deteriorating bilateral relationship with the West the United States cannot afford to "lose" - Sri Lanka, it said.

The Committee report said that the Obama administration is currently weighing a new strategy for relations with Sri Lanka.

The Committee proposed to increase the however, considering a new approach that increases U.S. leverage on Sri Lanka by capitalizing on the economic, trade, and security aspects of the relationship.

"U.S. strategy should also invest in Sinhalese parts of the country, instead of just focusing aid on the Tamil-dominated North and East," it suggested.

The Senate Committee report commended the government for taking positive steps to ease the humanitarian crisis in the North, develop the East, and reduce the number of child soldiers despite ongoing allegations of war crimes and human rights abuses.

It pointed out that Tamil leaders for their part have not yet made anticipated conciliatory gestures that might ease government concerns and foster a genuine dialogue.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee in February held a hearing on Sri Lanka. The hearing was widely considered by Sri Lankan community as one-sided because the hearing had no representation from the government but only its critics.

More recently in early November the Committee sent two staffers to Sri Lanka on a fact finding mission and to assess the ground situation.

Most Western governments have curtailed the aid to government of Sri Lanka citing its conduct during the last phase of the war and the human right record or have attached conditions to aid packages.

In contrast China and Iran have unconditionally supported post-war Sri Lanka to rebuild the country and carry out massive development projects. The government's close relationship with countries like Iran, Libya, Myanmar and China has wracked a nerve of the West.

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