Clinton-Peiris Talks: Accountability, human rights, media freedom, transparency reign brief dialogue

By Daya Gamage - US National Correspondent Asian Tribune Washington

Commending Sri Lanka for presenting a comprehensive action plan to implement the recommendations based on the LLRC findings, U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton in her 35-minute talks with Sri Lanka external affairs minister Prof. G.L. Peiris reiterated the necessity of an accountability process of alleged war crimes during the final stages of the battle to defeat separatist Tamil Tigers.

Hilary Clinton and G.L.Peiris made remarks that lasted ten minutes before the closed-door meeting at the State Department.

At the State Department daily media briefing the question asked by the media was "on accountability, did she refer specifically to prosecuting war crimes at the end of the war – the 40,000 civilians who died?", to which the spokeswoman Victoria Nuland replied "this is precisely what we mean when we talk about accountability in all of it."

Asked how specific did Secretary Clinton get about that, Ms. Nuland replied "She’s spoken in general terms, and then there were separate meetings with the delegation that Bob Blake had, that Mike Posner had, to go through the details."

Bob Blake is assistant secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs and Mr. Posner is assistant secretary of State for human rights.

Secretary Clinton met Friday, 18 May for about 35 minutes with Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Peiris. The foreign minister presented a very serious and comprehensive approach to the Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission’s implementation and the plans that the government has, including plans to make it more public and accessible both to Sri Lankans and to those outside Sri Lanka, what the government intends to do in the implementation realm.

The State Department spokeswoman at the media briefing said:

"The Secretary encouraged a really transparent, open, public process, not only on the LLRC specifically and its implementation, but also with regard to accountability; to strengthen reconciliation, public confidence inside and outside Sri Lanka in the process; and frankly, to speed the healing of the country. So she really – she said good plan, now you really need to make it public; now you really need to show your people, the world, the concrete implementation steps going forward.

"She also stressed the importance, as she always does, of demilitarizing the north; of getting to the provincial elections in the north; protection of human rights, including protection of the press; and generally the creation of an environment that’s inclusive; engagement and the creation of space for civil society along the lines of what she talked about globally earlier in the week."

Asian Tribune


(2012-05-19/asiantribune)