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PRIME MINISTER'S SPEECH AT THE TOKYO DONOR CONFERENCE
09 June 2003
On a map of the world Sri Lanka is small even seemingly insignificant. Yet this conference today demonstrates that we have many significant friends across the world deeply committed to the restoration of peace in my country.
Not least the Japanese nation to whom we are highly indebted for hosting this conference. My thanks go, in particular, to the Prime Minister of Japan His Excellency Junichiro Koizumi for organising the conference and for so graciously attending today. I would also like to thank Her Excellency Yoriko Kawaguchi Minister for Foreign Affairs, and Ambassador Yasushi Akashi Japan’s Special Envoy for Peace and Development in Sri Lanka. Their continued support and inspiration reflects our friendship with the Japanese people which goes back many decades. It is one that I hope personally will grow ever deeper in the years to come.
I would also like to thank the United States for their support both as a co-chair of this conference and for their backing of the pre-conference seminar in Washington. The importance the United States places upon this conference is evident by the presence of Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage.
That we should have two more co-chairs from the European Union and from Norway further demonstrates how fortunate we should count ourselves.
Although there are many friends of Sri Lanka in this room today I must make special mention of the work of the Royal Norwegian Government in their role as facilitators of the peace process. They have an international reputation for such work and every day they demonstrate their commitment to peace. Although there must be moments when they would like to feel a little more appreciated by some of the people they seek to help. For our part we look forward to their continued participation as facilitators in this important process.
Mr Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, 18 months ago the people of Sri Lanka gave a mandate to a new Government to recapture lost opportunities. They charged us with the job of solving some serious challenges.
At the time of independence we were a literate, prosperous and peaceful country and in many respects setting the pace in Asia. Many countries in South East Asia talked of emulating Sri Lanka as they built their own economies.
Today we are no longer the nation we were. But the people of Sri Lanka are courageous and determined. They will tolerate a lot. Nevertheless they had grown weary of the lack of success of our country. Being below par was not good enough for them. So they set us the task of delivering in three critical areas.
The first was to lay a foundation for a lasting peace. We had become a divided nation filled with ethnic hatred and bitterness, a nation at war destroying itself and its people.
The second was to rebuild an economy which was on its knees. The people recognised that our whole economic way of life had to be restructured and reformed. Nor could the economy sustain an expensive and meaningless war any longer. We had to place ourselves in a position where we could compete and prosper in the newly globalised world.
The third was to resolve the problems of a deeply politically divided society. One where over the past fifty or more years the political gap has widened. Where consensus between the political parties was more words than deed and where elections had become increasingly violent and discordant.
Unlike previous elections the people went further by electing a new government with an incumbent President who was leader of the Peoples Alliance. They gave a loud and clear signal that they wanted the political parties to bury their differences and start working together.
In the Peace Process the role of the President had been significant. In a courageous move it was she who had started the process and had appointed the Norwegians as facilitators. Today we appreciate the way in which she continues to support the peace process in principle. It is with such support that we persist in working on building bridges of understanding.
When we took office the rationale behind our thinking on the Peace Process was based on humanitarian needs. We decided that to wait for a political settlement before rehabilitating the North and the East was unacceptable. The hatred and distrust between the two sides was too deep seated and would take years to resolve. We agreed that whilst negotiating, if the funds could be found, we should try to give back the lives to our people in those war torn areas.
This was, of course, a high risk strategy because in peace processes elsewhere donors had always wanted to see a peace agreement before committing funds. It was even more high risk because with every peace process there are ups and downs. There would be times when the talks reached an impasse and progress would be slow. Then how would the donors react?
We are in one such impasse at the moment. The timing is unfortunate but I believe that progress has been sufficient over the past fifteen months since the Permanent Ceasefire Agreement for you the donors to see that both sides are genuine about the ultimate outcome.
That the LTTE are not here today is a matter of sadness because the ultimate losers could be the people of the North and the East. Especially since this conference was to be a partnership effort between the LTTE and the Government. However I believe that the peace process is mature enough for you to see that we can and will move forward very soon. An encouraging sign is the way in which contact is still being maintained at grass roots level and the opportunities for trust building continue.
By now you will also have recognised that this is a responsible government. One which will continue to find innovative ways to look after all the people of our country regardless, and that very firmly includes the Tamil people. We will work for the development of the North East in partnership with the LTTE. We also have a responsibility to safeguard the interests of all the communities in the North East
When the Peace Talks start again then of course we have to continue the process of finding an ultimate solution almost certainly within the framework of a Federal state. Bearing in mind our determination to deal with humanitarian issues from the very beginning we have looked at ways of delivering a reconstruction, redevelopment and rehabilitation programme.
The actions of the LTTE in the past few weeks has demonstrated what we too were realising. It was clear that the structures we had put in place were too cumbersome and too distant from the people to be acceptable or to react quickly enough. The people needed a much faster response than the Government was able to deliver.
We designed a new structure with the multilateral agencies and the donor community. We did this for two good reasons. The first was that we could see the donor community were as frustrated as the Government and the LTTE at the lack of implementation. The second was that from the very beginning we had realised that any solution to our particular problems were resolvable only with the widest possible involvement by you the donor community. Regrettably, so far, we have not managed to reconcile our proposals with the thinking of the LTTE.
Whilst talking about the donor community I would like to thank those agencies who put so much time and energy into preparing the North East Needs Assessment paper. This project was prepared through a partnership between the Government, the LTTE and the International Community. The delivery will also be implemented through a partnership between the parties. The United Nations, The World Bank and the Asian Development Bank who have graced this conference have worked tirelessly on this assessment. I know that they will be presenting their findings during the course of the conference.
Meanwhile it is clear that much political work still has to be done. The North East Needs Assessment gives us the opportunity to carry forward the programme of reconstruction, rehabilitation and reconciliation. With your commitment of the resources needed to carry out this programme we can bring much needed relief to the people of the North and the East. We want to use that money in partnership and cooperation with the LTTE to see all our communities benefit in this war torn area.
Meanwhile the differences between us over an administrative structure are not that far apart.
In Oslo both the government and the LTTE jointly agreed a significant statement and I quote:
“ ... the parties agreed to explore a solution founded on the principle of internal self-determination in areas of historical habitation of the Tamil-speaking peoples, based on a federal structure within a united Sri Lanka. The parties acknowledged that the solution has to be acceptable to all communitiesâ€
[face=Arial]Eighteen years after making Tamil an official language, only eight percent of officers attached to government offices are proficient in Tamil.
Chairman of the Official Language Commission D.E.W. Gunasekera laments that no steps have been taken during this time to train officers to work in Tamil.
As a result, Tamils are unable to correspond in their mother tongue.
Tamil classes are being conducted for Sinhala medium officers in health, police and several other departments but there are still not enough policemen to record a Tamil statement.
The present practice is to get the complainant to write his own complaint and no one knows what he says, said one senior police officer.
Although both Sinhala and Tamil are official languages, work in banks, insurance companies and courts is mostly done in English.
Most court judgments including capital punishment sentences are also promulgated in English.[/face]