US can’t afford to disengage with Lanka - CSIS
February 23, 2010 08:07 am
A leading Washington, DC-based think tank, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, notwithstanding the arrest of retired Sri Lankan Army General Sarath Fonseka who challenged President Mahinda Rajapakse at the recent elections, and the country’s poor record on human rights and its treatment of several thousand internally displaced persons, has said that the United States cannot afford to disengage with the island nation.
In a paper titled ‘Sri
Lanka’s Election: A Clear Mandate,’ the CSIS South Asia bureau, which is
headed by former diplomat Teresita Schaffer, who served for nearly three
decades in South Asian capitals, including a stint as US ambassador to Sri
Lanka, said, Rajapakse’s recent victory -- which has been called into question
in certain quarters with Fonseka alleging it was rigged – ‘presents an
opportunity to rebuild a nation devastated by a protracted, separatist war.’
It said that ‘in order to
sustain peace the new government must find a way to bring minorities into the
political mainstream while pursuing economic development.’
“Beyond domestic concerns,
But it argued, ‘given
Thus the CSIS called for ‘a
subtle and sophisticated approach to rethinking the partnership, recognising
that the political game has changed in Sri Lanka, but also focusing on US
economic, trade, and security interests, will benefit both sides.’
The report said that ‘eight
months after the dramatic and three decades of separatist war, Mahinda
Rajapakse’s decisive re-election as president of Sri Lanka gives him an
opportunity to move the country forward on multiple fronts -- political reform,
economic renewal, and re-engagement with international players including the
United States.’
“For the
The report added that ‘these
countries will need to find a new way to communicate with a leader, and a
country, in no mood to listen to countries that they believe provided bad
advice over the past two decades.’
It said that although
Fonseka has not accepted Rajapakse’s victory, ‘other observers who have no
reason to favour Rajapakse have not confirmed any suggestion of massive fraud,
and the results were consistent all over the country.’
Although predicting that
Fonseka’s accusation are ‘unlikely to get any traction,’ the report
acknowledged that Rajapakse’s large scale reorganisation of the country’s
military with a purge of several senior commanders being forced into compulsory
early retirement was necessarily because they supported Fonseka in the election
notwithstanding the government accusing them ‘of breaching military discipline.’
The CSIS report said that
Rajapakse’s remarks during his presidential campaign where he promised a
continuation of political development in the provinces as well as free election
in the north and his declaration of ‘a Sri Lankan solution,’ was an implicit
rejection of ‘the aspects of previous settlement proposals loosely modeled on
the Indian constitution.’
It also said that Rajapakse
has ‘burnished Sri Lanka’s long standing ties with China and also moved closer
to Myanmar, Iran, and Libya,’ and pointed out that Beijing has investment
billions of dollars in Sri Lanka through military loans, infrastructure loans,
and port development.’
But the report argued, ‘at
the same time,
Thus, according to the CSIS, “The stakes in new engagement between Sri Lanka and Western nations involve more than Sri Lanka’s political future,” and reiterated that since Sri Lanka is located at the nexus of crucial trading routes in the Indian Ocean, “the United States has an interest in deterring terrorist activity and curbing piracy that could disrupt trade in the area.”
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