tw news-features

Full Text of Speech delivered by R. M.Emaam MP in Sri Lanka Parliament on Jun 5, 2008:

Hon. Presiding Member, with your permission, I wish to express my views on the present situation in the country. I always listen to the customary speech of the Hon. Prime Minister during the extension of the Emergency. His speech indicates that there is no room for peace.

Once in this house, an ex-Finance Minister, the Hon. Ronnie de Mel, said that peace on knees is better than war on feet. The present situation affects everyone irrespective of the difference of race or religion. I inform this House that the Muslims from the North, particularly from Jaffna, where I hail from, are the most affected. The Tamils do not have political rights and the Sinhalese do not have economic resources, but my community from the North does not have both. Since I am from this community, I urge the government to go for negotiations with the Tamil Tigers. The LTTE always expresses its willingness for negotiation.

I had the privilege of listening to an interview of the present Army Commander on the electronic and print media. In his recent interview on the ITN channel, he said that the LTTE being supported by the Tamils in Tamil Nadu, the expatriate Tamils all over the world and the Tamils in the Island. Again, in the same interview that appeared in the “Lankadeepa”, to the question as to how the LTTE was able to achieve victories, he said that in the battle field its leaders are in the front and, as per his words “labala” cadres or novices or privates are behind.

As per a verse in “Thinakkural”, before commencing a war, the power of oneself, the power of the enemy and the power of the persons who are behind him and the enemy must be assessed. Though the government says that it could wipe out the LTTE before December 2008, the battle scenario repudiates that thinking. It is an unwinnable war. It is a battle between two brothers over the sharing of property of their mother. Since the elder brother is trying to grab the whole thing, Sri Lanka has been pushed into the present deplorable situation. As per the said verse, the LTTE enjoys sufficient moral and physical support from the above sources I urge the government to think of this.

With these forces behind, the LTTE can continue to resist. As per another verse in “Thinakkural”, the leaders must lead the war for victories. The Army Commander had acknowledged that on his side, novices or privates are in the front line. According to that interview, the Commander has an inherent grudge against his commanders. As per the verse I mentioned last, unless leaders command their forces in the front, whatever number of weapons and soldiers would not bring victories. In the said “lankadeepa” interview, the Army Commander had further accepted the LTTE as a most formidable force. Also, I thank the Military Spokesman, Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara, for addressing the LTTE cadres as “LTTE members”, but spokesmen from the other forces address them as “terrorists”. Those officers are not gentlemen.

Why is the LTTE fighting? Why is it being supported by the Tamils and the Tamil-speaking persons? Barring Jayalalitha, it enjoys the support of the Tamils of Tamil Nadu. Barring the Hon. Douglas Devananda, it has gained the full support of the Tamils in Sri Lanka.

It must be acknowledged that the Tamils have grievances. Though Tamil was made an officials language in 1988, even today it does not have official status in any government department. I wish to quote a simple incident. I, as a practicing lawyer who does conveyancing also, very often go to the Land Registries in Colombo and Mount-Lavinia where all the name boards are only in the Sinhala language, a language I do not know. This is the prevailing situation in almost all government departments.

Though the Tamils are learning Sinhala, the enthusiasm to learn Tamil is not seen in the Sinhalese brothers. In the third year anniversary supplement of “Rivira”, a columnist had acknowledged this fact.

The present military exercise will end up in fatality and their will be a mass loss of human lives. It will create a big wedge between the two communities. The persons who wish to eliminate terrorism through war do not have an once of knowledge of the realities of the ground situation. It is being pursued for monetary considerations. My view is held by several generals who led this war in the by gone era. It is a matter for happiness that a general who said this cannot be won militarily was a recipient of presidential honours recently. I admire his sagacity and openness. Due to the present conflict, the Muslims from the North are undergoing severe hardships.

Of them, the Muslims from Jaffna are the most affected. As a representative of theirs, I wish to appeal to the Government to negotiate with the LTTE. Due to the war, the coffers of warlords are overflowing with foreign capital whereas we, the Sri Lankans, are becoming poorer and poorer day by day on account of this war. Due to the intransigent attitude of the warlords, youths who have not passed their prime age lose their lives in the battle field. The lifespan of a person is three scores and ten. Unfortunately, the life of the combatants on both sides does not span for even one score.

The persons who think that war is the only solution to defeat terrorism are not thinking of the factors which are in the way to win this war. The Government says that it is waging war on the LTTE. Unfortunately, the Government has not addressed itself as to why the LTTE is fighting against it. Since the Tamil community has grievances, the LTTE is backed by it not only within Sri Lanka, all over the world. It is headed by Prabaharan who has surpassed the war skills of Moshe Dayan, the Israeli General. Prabaharan is not Pillayan to prostrate himself before every Tom, Dick and Harry or to curry flavor with those in power to the detriment of the Tamil Community. Pillayan, who sent a lorry laden with explosives to the Dalada Maligava, was given a rousing welcome by the prelates. Unfortunately, the persons who got involved in this crime unwittingly have received jail terms of over 19 years.

The government should negotiate with the LTTE to find a permanent solution to this problem. The Government should not believe bankrupt politicians or opportunists. Since the LTTE is ready for peace, the Government should welcome it. I wish to say that the present alliance between the cutthroat Tamil groups and the Government will not go on for a long time. Unless this problem is settled with the LTTE, no power in the world could restore peace in our country.

[Raseen Mohammed Emam MP, TNA]

[Raseen Mohammed Emam was sworn in as a national list MP of the Tamil National Alliance on Feb 5th 2007; The 61 year old lawyer hailing from Moor street in Jaffna town became the first ever Muslim from Jaffna district to become a Parliamentarian]

By Kanaganayagam Kanagisvaran, PC

My introduction to Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam came about when I was barely eight years or so old.
I remember that day very well, for the reason that it was the occasion on which a large portrait of Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam was unveiled in my father’s Chambers, at our house in Jaffna.

This was the third portrait there. Of the other two, which were already there, one was of my father’s mother and the other of Mahatma Gandhi.

I asked my father, whose picture it was, and he replied that it was Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam, a great Tamil patriot and the brother of Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan. Sir Ramanathan was a household name for us, as my father was closely associated with the Ramanathan Trust and we used to visit Ramanathan College for Girls, at Maruthanamadam, where my mother was educated, during the life time of Lady Ramanathan and Hon. S. Natesan who was married to their daughter Sivagamasunthari.

Later, I was to become acquainted with Sir Arunachalam Mahadeva, who used to visit our home regularly, which was then the office of the United National Party in Jaffna, when Sir Mahadeva was contesting the Jaffna seat against G.G. Ponnambalam of the All Ceylon Tamil Congress. Later, in my early teens, when my father used to travel to Colombo for the meetings of the Senate, I used to tag along, and on occasions we have visited Sir A. Mahadeva at Ponklar.

I am, therefore, greatly honoured to have been invited by the Chairman and Trustees of the Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam Trust to deliver this year’s memorial oration.

Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam, whose 155th birth anniversary we commemorate today, was a great public servant and patriot, in the true sense of these words. He lived in a time of great social change and spearheaded the growth of elite political consciousness, elite politics and constitutional evolution. He, more than any other man of his time helped to lay the foundations of the freedoms, which we later came to enjoy and take for granted.

Those freedoms stand undermined and threatened today.

Born on September 14, 1853, he was a leader respected and trusted by all communities, and an inspiration to all who cherish high ideals. The first Ceylonese to enter the then Civil Service through the open door of competition, he held several positions of high responsibility, including judicial posts in various parts of the island.

His achievements are too numerous to mention here, but special note should be made of the fact that he has been rightly called the father of the Ceylon University movement, which he spearheaded at the very dawn of the 20th century – January 1906, and which eventually led to the establishment of the Ceylon University.

In the political field, he convened what was probably the first political conference, which met at the Victoria Masonic Hall, on December 15, 1917. It was convened to debate and consider constitutional reforms, and he was elected to Chair the Ceylon Reform League and the Ceylon National Association.

In his Presidential Address, that day, he spoke thus,

“The time is therefore auspicious… to win for ourselves as large a measure of constitutional reform as possible.

“We demand the liberty to take our share in the burden of this responsibility, to manage our own lives, make our own mistakes, gain strength by knowledge and experience, and acquire that self- confidence and self - respect which are indispensable to national progress and success. We seek to be in our own country what other self-respecting people are in theirs, self-governing, strong, respected at home and abroad, and we ask for the grant at once of a definite measure of progressive advance towards that goal.”

These words have special meaning for us today.

Two years later, on December 11, 1919, in his Presidential Address at the Public Hall, Colombo as the first President of the Ceylon National Congress, espousing the case for representative government for Ceylon, when ideas of self-determination were the common currency of political thought, he was overjoyed on that occasion to proclaim, “We have done, once and for all, with our petty differences and dissensions… whatever one’s creed, race or caste may be…” and ended his speech by quoting from the Karaniya Metta Sutta: “Let all living beings be joyous and safe, may it be theirs to dwell in happiness!”

But sadly, that was not to be.

Today, we might even ponder whether it will ever be.

A misunderstanding, to use a euphemism, soon developed between the Sinhalese and Tamil members of the Congress over the question of representation, which caused an estrangement between him and the Congress. He surrendered his office of Presidency of the Ceylon National Congress in October 1920.

In order to organise and possibly guide Tamil public opinion, he founded the Ceylon Tamil League in 1923, but did not live long enough to guide our fortunes. On a pilgrimage to the sacred shrines of India, in the midst of his devotions, he passed away on January 9, 1924.

Since then, a strange destiny has hung over Sri Lanka and she has ever since been wandering in the desert.
We have come a full circle: Death in the midst of devotion.

My interest in Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam was rekindled when I started my legal career in Sri Lanka in 1966. Soon I came across his treatise – A Digest of the Laws of Ceylon Volume I, published in 1910. Appendix IV to this book gives extracts from one of his best known judgments, the Adippola Sannas case, from Chilaw, which related to the grant - Sannas – (strip of copper plate) of the tank of Adippola at Chilaw to a ‘Suriya Chetti of Telugu Country’ by King Buwaneka Bahu of Kotte, in 1247 Saka Era, equal to 1325 of the Christian era. It is a masterly study of the social history of the people of the area.

I was fortunate later to have been able to acquire a copy of this rare book for my library. Searching for his other writings, I was equally fortunate, some six months ago, to be able to acquire his Sketches of Ceylon History written in 1906, and Speeches and Writings of Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam – Volume I, published in 1936.

Reading about him, it seemed to me that to him, life was a duty. He loved fair play and justice. He held in contempt the vulgarity of the demagogue.

In a world gone mad on race and religion and which has made politics the jugglery of race antagonism and religious hatred, it behoves us to remember and emulate Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam’s quality of mind, his sacrifice and his unselfishness, in order to preserve the liberties that he won for us, and the understanding that he assiduously propagated - that liberty and justice are for all, without exception.

But the way for that, it seems, is not smooth.

There are now many more wrongs than ever suffered by our peoples in this island.
How easy to divide for ever.

New forces are at work among us.

We should therefore, as a body politic, seek to achieve what Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam tirelessly worked for all his life to impress upon future generations - that political power is a serious responsibility.

He taught us that responsibility should be recognised as a precarious and extremely frail and perishable good, depending on a whole range of economic, social, political and cultural factors; and that the breakdown of a single one of them is capable of triggering off destructive chain reactions leading to large scale disintegration and corruption of the sense of responsibility.

He showed us that responsibility presupposes the motivation, and the ability and the possibility to choose between alternatives. Also, it presupposes predictability and accountability - in a pluralistic society such as ours, I would add another; sensitivity. One should be sensitive to every group’s socio-economic, cultural and ethnic concerns.

But if the truth be told, there is a yawning gulf of suspicion, hatred and fear.

Any twinge of conscience on account of this, we would seem to soothe with offerings in the name of religion.
It is a self-evident truth that you cannot hold any man in the gutter without staying there yourself.
The only real help you can give is to get off his back.

A whole generation of our youth has been deprived of opportunities of education and normal life during the formative years of their life. They will surely pass into adult population with irremediably stunted powers and narrowed outlooks.

Will this not affect the whole quality of the national life?

Deprived of all power and responsibility, their capacities will be dwarfed and stunted. Forced to live in an atmosphere of inferiority, could they ever rise to the full height to which their manhood is capable of rising? Hypnotised into thinking that they are weak and inferior, no greater disaster can overtake a people.

It is two nations warring in the bosom of a single state – not of principles, but of race.

The lesson to be learnt from the lives of great patriots like Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam, is that we still can regain our self-confidence, nothing can daunt us and nothing is beyond us.

I truly believe that had Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam been alive today, that would be the message he would want conveyed.
I would conclude with the burden of Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam’s A Message to the Country delivered in 1918, which is that we must spiritualise public life by reverting to the ideals of our forefathers and establishing an aristocracy of intellect, character and self-sacrificing service. [courtesy: nation.lk]

US ambassador Robert Blake today said that the purpose behind the freezing of TRO assets in the US was to block funds to LTTE and not for Tamil civilians. He reiterated the US stand that the final solution to Sri Lanka’s conflict should be a negotiated one. He said The U.S. will continue to support efforts to stop human rights violations against Tamils.

And “the U.S. will continue to vigorously support efforts to stop human rights violations against Tamils, including abductions and threats against Tamil journalists,” the embassy press release emphasized yesterday.

[US ambassador Robert Blake was forced to walk along Galle Road from the US Embassy premises to American Centre near Galle Face Hotel this afternoon when that section of the Galle Road was temporarily closed due to VIP movement. Blake came to American Centre to brief media on US decision to freeze TRO funds. Pic by Indraratne Balasuriya-Courtesy: Daily Mirror.lk]

Full Text of Statement by Ambassador Robert Blake on the TRO at a press Conference at the American Center - November 16, 2007:

I want to welcome all of you today to the American Center.

The purpose of this press conference is to explain in more detail the announcement yesterday by the U.S. Department of the Treasury that it is freezing the assets of the Tamils Rehabilitation Organization because the TRO acts as a front to facilitate fundraising as well as arms and other procurement for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

As you all know, the United States in 1997 designated the LTTE as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

Since then, it has been a felony under U.S. law to provide material support or resources to the LTTE.

In August 2006 and April 2007, the FBI arrested a total of 9 people who the U.S. Department of Justice subsequently charged with various crimes, including conspiracy to provide material support and resources to the LTTE.

3 of those arrested have pled guilty to Conspiracy to Provide Material Support to a Foreign Terrorist Organization. 3 more have pled guilty to bribery charges related to alien smuggling. Prosecution continues against the others, and the overall investigation is continuing.

Those arrests made clear once again that the United States is committed to enforcing its laws against support for designated terrorist groups wherever they may operate.

Those arrests also led to discovery of operational and financial links between the Tamils Rehabilitation Organization and the LTTE.

The TRO, as you all are well aware, is a charitable organization with offices here in Sri Lanka and in a number of countries abroad.

The U.S. Government has concluded that, in the United States, the TRO has raised funds on behalf of the LTTE through a network of individual representatives. According to sources within the TRO, the TRO is the preferred conduit of funds from the United States to the LTTE in Sri Lanka.

The TRO also has facilitated LTTE procurement operations in the United States. Those operations included the purchase of munitions, equipment, communication devices, and other technology for the LTTE.

The LTTE oversees the activities of the TRO and other LTTE-linked organizations in Sri Lanka and abroad. Directives issued by the LTTE suggest that LTTE-affiliated branch representatives are expected to coordinate their efforts with the respective TRO representatives in their locations and report all activity to the LTTE.

That is the extent of what I have to say about TRO links to the LTTE, but as you can see those are very serious charges.

It was on the basis of these links that the U.S. Department of the Treasury in Washington DC yesterday designated the TRO under Executive Order 13224, which is aimed at financially isolating terrorist groups and their support networks.

Designations like this are an important tool to not only block illicit assets, but also shut down channels used by terrorists and other dangerous groups to raise, move and store money.

Upon designation, any assets of the designees held under U.S. jurisdiction are frozen and U.S. persons are prohibited from dealing with the designees.

I would like to emphasize that this designation is an action against the LTTE, not against the Tamil people.

The United States continues to support a just, negotiated political settlement to the conflict that meets the aspirations of all communities, including Sri Lanka’s Tamils.

The U.S. will continue to support efforts to stop human rights violations against Tamils.

The United States also believes that a solution to the conflict in Sri Lanka and respect for the rights of the Tamil people can only be found through peaceful negotiations.

That concludes my remarks. I would be pleased to take your questions.

Thank you.

[Source: US Embassy, Colombo, Sri Lanka]

Remarks by Chief Guest, Ambassador Robert Blake at the book launch of “Nothing Grows Under the Banyan Tree and Other Stories”

The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon (Daily News) - Wednesday, October 31, 5:30pm, Atrium Lobby, Cinnamon Grand

Mr. Pramod DeSilva, Dr. Sarath Amunugama, Dr. Tissa Abeysekara, Hon. Anura Priyadharshana Yapa, Hon. Luxman Yapa Aberwardane, Ladies and Gentlemen:

It is an honor for me to be here tonight to serve as Chief Guest for the launching of the anthology Nothing Grows Under the Banyan Tree and Other Stories. At the outset let me express my admiration and congratulations to the organizers of this event, The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon, for undertaking this important initiative to recognize and give encouragement to short story authors writing in English.

I was delighted to receive this invitation. Let me say at the outset that I have never been clever or imaginative enough to write fiction, although I am sure that my friends in the JVP and perhaps elsewhere might say that most of what I say and write belongs in the fictional category!

But I am an avid reader of fiction and am therefore happy to be here to encourage the accomplished writers represented in this anthology today.

The United States has its own awards for short stories known as the O’Henry awards. Named after the prolific short story writer William Sidney Porter who wrote under the pseudonym of O. Henry, the first prizes were awarded in 1919 to “strengthen the art of the short story and to stimulate younger authors.” In 1927 Doubleday was chosen to publish the first volume of O. Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories. This tradition has continued ever since.

The beginnings of the modern short story can, in many ways, be found in America. Many credit Edgar Allan Poe as an originator of the craft. It was he who first undertook to analyze the art form, defining the short story as a narrative that “can be read at one sitting.”

Poe had an ambition to create an independent American literary tradition and turned to magazines to help do so. From The Saturday Evening Post to The New Yorker, from Hawthorn to Hemingway - short stories brought ordinary Americans news about the way they live, and why. To this day, the New Yorker, Harper’s and Atlantic magazines and many other publications continue to provide a rich menu of wonderful short stories for their readers.

Numerous great American writers have arguably done their best work in this medium. Washington Irving, Eudora Welty, Mark Twain, Flannery O’Connor, Jack London, Katherine Anne Porter, Tennessee Williams, Kate Chopin, and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. – some of these authors’ most memorable pieces are short stories.

The short story is both a result and an illustration of two of America’s greatest values: democracy and diversity.

Democratically - the nature of short story form lends itself to exploring the life of the common man, the experiences and crises of ordinary life that resonate with us all. Emerson called this equal treatment of life stories, “the new importance given to the single person.” Yet, as writer Gail Godwin noted, “The more you focus on the singular and the strange, the more you become aware of the universal and the infinite.”

Between the civil war and the outbreak of World War I, immigration was the greatest human story of the time and a slew of eager writers portrayed this experience in the short story genre. Immigrant writers created a literature “with an altogether new substance, saturated with the truth of the life they are experiencing.”

Our nation’s immigrants provided the foundation for our diversity that has given America its greatest strength. American short fiction reflects that same diversity. From Bret Harte’s newly settled Far West, to William Faulkner’s sweltering Deep South or O. Henry’s bustling North Eastern cityscapes. It is the story of the dusty plains of Oklahoma, the factories of Chicago, the mining towns of the Sierra Nevada, the snows of Alaska or the teaming tenements of New York City.

The short story is specially suited to the concerns of a fast developing culture, characterized by the diversity of its traditions and populations. It is especially notable for the part it has played in telling the story of ethnic minorities in America – the Native American, Asian, African, Jewish, and Hispanic and countless other immigrant experiences of our growing nation.

Today, the thriving American short story genre speaks in a host of different voices – those of T. Coraghessan Boyle, Jamaica Kinkaid, Amy Tan, John Updike, Grace Paley, Tobias Wolff, Saul Bellow, even Steven King. In fact, two of the finalists for the 2007 National Book Awards were collections of short stories.

In an age when radio, movies and TV compete for the writer’s audience it is heartening to see a leading newspaper like the Daily News encouraging a resurgence of the short story art form. In doing so they create an outlet where English language authors can recognize and celebrate the diverse experiences and cultures of Sri Lanka.

Newspapers like the Daily News have been featuring short stories for several years now, and I commend incumbent ANCL Chairman Mr. Dandula Padmakumara for encouraging writers on the Sri Lankan literary scene by providing them a showcase and audience for their works.

I offer my sincere congratulations to editors Dr. Lakshmi de Silva and Vijita Fernando for undertaking the arduous task of judging over 300 entries, and I look forward to reading their final selections.

But most importantly, I congratulate the twenty-four authors whose works are featured in Nothing Grows Under the Banyan Tree and Other Stories. Their success will share new visions and voices of Sri Lanka with the world.

Let me conclude with a quote from O’Henry who said “There are stories in everything. I’ve got some of my best yarns from park benches, lampposts, and newspaper stands.” One of his stories, “Springtime A La Carte,” grew out of a restaurant menus he and a friend were perusing. The story is about a love sick woman who typed daily menus for a New York restaurant. One day she absent-mindedly typed, “Dearest Walter, with hard-boiled egg.” Her lost love saw it, realized only she could have typed it and found her.

I hope all aspiring Sri Lankan short-story writers will draw inspiration from this anecdote to believe in themselves. Thanks to the Daily News and Lake House, there will now be fresh opportunities for Sri Lanka’s talented writers.

Thank you.

[Courtesy: US Embassy, Colombo, Sri Lanka]

Remarks by Ambassador Robert Blake at the Inauguration of the Bribery Commission Office, Colombo-October 19, 2007:

Attorney General de Silva, Chairman Ismail, Director General Ranasinghe, Mr. Withanachchi, Mr. Harold, and Mr. Weliamuna, thank you for coming today to inaugurate the newly renovated Bribery Commission. It is an honor for me to be here to demonstrate the support of the United States for this vital Sri Lankan Government body.

One of the U.S. Government’s key priorities in Sri Lanka is to support institutions that improve public service provision and accountability to the public. The Bribery Commission is one such institution.

The renovation of the Bribery Commission library and auditorium will give case investigation officers and researchers improved tools and environments in which to provide faster and better service to the public when handling complaints about bribery and corruption.

The cost of corruption is difficult to quantify, but there is little doubt that it has dramatically negative economic and political consequences. Corruption damages economic development and reform, impedes the ability of countries to attract foreign investment, hinders the growth of democratic institutions, and concentrates power in the hands of a few.

A recent Sri Lankan study indicated that Sri Lanka’s GDP would have grown by at least two percentage points in 2006 had government corruption been prevented. The best way to combat corruption is for a government, any government, to be open and transparent.

For the past 18 months, the U.S. and Sri Lanka have been working together to develop strategies to fight corruption. The Sri Lanka Anti-Corruption program was created by the U.S. Agency for International Development after the tsunami, and was designed to help minimize corruption in the distribution of post-tsunami assistance.

In addition to the renovation work for he Bribery Commission, USAID supported the publication of this children’s book about corruption [hold up book], written by Sri Lanka’s own Sybil Wetthasinghe. We hope that this little publication will raise public awareness and understanding about the negative impact of corruption on Sri Lankan society and contribute to an environment in which corruption is openly discussed and addressed. By focusing on children, we hope the book will inculcate in Sri Lanka’s next generation a strong aversion to corruption.

I’d like to thank our implementing partner Transparency International for all their good work on behalf of this project, and offer them our heartiest encouragement for continued success in their five-year strategy to combat public corruption in Sri Lanka, and our ongoing support wherever possible.

I also want to thank Attorney General de Silva for coming. Your presence here demonstrates the Government of Sri Lanka’s commitment to combating public corruption.

Finally, I’d like to commend the Bribery Commission, particularly Chairman Ismail, for the good work the Commission has done since its establishment in 1994. While there are always many opportunities for improving the environment to make it free from corruption, during its short existence, the Bribery Commission has become a deterrent to corruption and has lead the way in the Government to help restore public trust in government institutions.

Thank you.

[Source: Us Embassy Press Release, Colombo, Sri Lanka]

Remarks by Ambassador Blake at a press conference announcing a U.S. initiative to combat human trafficking in Sri Lanka - October 18, 2007:

Mr. Waidyalankara, Mr. Abdiker, Ms. Cohn, guests, and members of the press, let me extend to all of you a very warm welcome to the American Center.

We are here today to talk about a very serious issue, one that we may be aware exists but one that lurks in the shadows.

I am referring to human trafficking, something that takes place in many countries of the world, including the United States. Human trafficking is the third largest and fastest growing criminal industry in the world, and is emerging as one of the most urgent human security issues of today. A recent report by the U.S. Attorney General estimated that 600,000-80,000 human beings are trafficked across international borders each year. 80% of them are women and girls.

Thousands of these are trafficked into the U.S. which is why President Bush has made the United States a leader in the fight against this terrible crime and why the Attorney General prepares an annual report on U.S. efforts to stop trafficking.

In Sri Lanka, high rates of domestic violence and migration, poverty, sex tourism and destruction caused by civil conflict and natural disasters have made Sri Lanka a country ripe for human trafficking.

Migration of women to the Middle East for domestic work, child recruitment and child sex tourism have overshadowed domestic human trafficking issues such as exploitation in domestic and industrial labor, and trafficking related to free trade zones.

According to Sri Lanka’s Foreign Employment Bureau, about one million Sri Lankans work abroad, of whom 60 percent are women. Of these, 54 percent work as domestic workers and are subject to risks of abuse, sexual harassment and forced labor.

The families of migrant workers remaining behind in Sri Lanka face challenges such as long absences of the primary caregiver and sometimes neglect by the remaining caregiver, leaving children vulnerable to abuse and exploitation.

A recent US State Department report found Sri Lanka to be a country of source and origin for men, women and children trafficked for domestic labor and sexual exploitation.

Though the report states that the Government of Sri Lanka does not fully comply with standards for the elimination of trafficking, it said that the government is “making significant efforts to do so.”

Workers’ remittances, as the second largest source of foreign exchange in Sri Lanka, play a key role in the country’s economy and are important source of income for its citizens. Our concern, as a friend of Sri Lanka, is not to reduce foreign employment opportunities, but rather to help ensure that workers are not placed in situations where they are abused and exploited.

We commend the Government of Sri Lanka for amending its penal code in April 2006 to criminalize trafficking crimes in compliance with UN Trafficking Protocol standards, and for ratifying the South Asian regional convention on Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Women and Children for Prostitution.

But the fact is, the real number of people victimized by trafficking is little known.

A second gap is that Sri Lanka needs a better trained network of law enforcement professionals to establish legal grounds under which instigators of trafficking can be identified and prosecuted under the law.

To enable Sri Lanka to identify those responsible and hold them accountable for trafficking practices, the U.S. State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development are funding a $500,000 program that will help train Government of Sri Lanka officials to pursue criminal investigations and prosecutions of trafficking offenses more aggressively.

Funded at a total of $500,000, the program will be implemented by our long-time partner the International Organization on Migration, or IOM.

The program focuses more on litigation and prosecution, as well as prevention through training of police and trainers, to build capacity for law enforcement professionals in Sri Lanka to combat trafficking.

Specifically, this program will:

· Enhance the capacity and awareness of the government to combat trafficking through training of about 500 law enforcement and government officials on human trafficking.

· Improve data collection and dissemination across all organizations to track trafficking cases.

· Develop collaboration and coordination among governmental organizations and NGOs to share experiences, establish joint work plans and develop national policies to combat trafficking in Sri Lanka.

· Train more than 50 trainers, who will continue to build police capacity to combat trafficking long after these programs are finished, and

· Establish a database to help prevent and identify trafficking incidences and assist the government and other interested agencies in focusing their efforts on where the need is greatest.

We hope the Government of Sri Lanka will make training for its law enforcement officials a priority to raise awareness of trafficking and to identify it as a crime. Another important deterrent will be prosecutions of those found to be involved in the practice.

In that way, we can drive human traffickers from the shadows and into the light, where law enforcement and justice officials can help protect those who may be victimized by human trafficking.

Let me conclude by thanking Mr. Waidyalankara in particular for joining us today. His participation and remarks signify the importance Sri Lanka attaches to addressing the problem of human trafficking. My colleagues at the U.S. Embassy look forward to working closely with the Government and IOM on this important matter.

Thank you.

[US Embassy, Colombo, Sri Lanka Press Release]