The European Commission Statement

The European commission has adopted a decision to support

The European commission has adopted on 13th September 2002 a decision to support the peace process in Sri Lanka under its Rapid Reaction Mechanism. Following the February 23rd Ceasefire Agreement, the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) will start on Monday September 16th, formal talks in Thailand on further steps to be taken in the peace process. The Commission’s Decision is timed to coincide with the start of these talks. The additional Community funding is in recognition of the parties’ commitment to the Cease Fire Agreement. Its main objective, for which the total budget is £ 1.8 million, is to finance a series of measures to implement key provisions of the Cease Fire Agreement and to build confidence in the peace process.

The European Commission financed in May this year an assessment mission to Sri Lanka under its Rapid Reaction Mechanism (RRM) to explore possibilities for RRM-assistance for the peace process. On the basis of the outcomes of this mission (http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/external_relations/cpcm/doc.htm) and the August 14 Agreement between the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE to start formal talks on September 16, the Commission prepared a programme to implement key provisions of the Cease Fire Agreement and to build confidence in the peace process. The programme will focus on highly visible actions demonstrating the importance the European Commission attaches to the political initiatives currently undertaken. This programme under the Rapid Reaction Mechanism is additional to and supportive of other Community programmes.

The programme consists of the following measures:

Support to the implementation of the Cease Fire Agreement by rehabilitating schools that had been used for military purposes before being vacated as agreed in the Cease Fire Agreement. This includes clearing the school areas of mines, rehabilitation of the buildings and refurbishing them with basic equipment.
The rehabilitation of electricity lines between the checkpoint on the Kandy-Jaffna road in order to improve the movement of people between the former conflict zones by allowing the checkpoint to be operational on a 24h per day basis.
A financial contribution to the Peace Secretariat in order to facilitate activities aiming at the dissemination of information concerning developments related to the peace process to key stakeholders and the population.
Support to activities of the Human Rights Commission aiming at raising awareness among the population of human rights in general and minority rights in particular.

The contracts under this programme will be signed in the coming days. Implementation of the planned activities will start shortly after.

In parallel, the commission has started the process to mobilise £ 4 million under the rehabilitation budget line. These funds will be used for the rehabilitation of the Batticaloa Railroad, an additional contribution to assist the return of displaced persons and to finance a mine survey under the UN Mine Action Programme. The Commission will follow up these activities with its Country Strategy Paper 2003-2006.

The Road to Reconciliation, 2010

Investment and Education for Development
(January 21, 2011)

Speech by Prof Rajiva Wijesinha at the BizPact Investment Forum, Public Library Jaffna, January 6^th 2010.
Stability and Confidence for Revitalization - entrepreneurship and education amongst the resettled
(January 21, 2011)

The process of resettlement is proceeding apace now, with well over 120,000 persons having gone back to locations in the Northern Province. Of these the more complex returns were to areas previously under the control of the LTTE in sections of Mannar and Vavuniya and in Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu.
Civil Military Liaison - The key to social progress
(January 21, 2011)

In the long hard haul that the process of resettlement has entailed, perhaps the most remarkable factor is the role played by the military. After the enormous effort involved in defeating the LTTE, there was no respite for the soldiers. Instead they have continued to work at a level of intensity that is sadly not recognized.
Overcoming constrictions and tyranny - The oppression of the LTTE in Mullaitivu
(January 21, 2011)

One reason why I suspect reconciliation will be easier in Sri Lanka than in many places that have suffered conflict is the level of suffering inflicted by the LTTE on the Tamil people. There was also an extraordinary hierarchical system, which gave great advantages to the privileged whilst the others had to serve them unquestioningly.
Promoting Contact - English programmes for all communities in the East
(January 21, 2011)

There has been so much interest about resettlement and rebuilding in the North that the East has been comparatively neglected. I had not been there for six months myself, which was sad for that was an area I had been in constantly from the eighties onward.
Making Connections - The revival of Trincomalee
(January 21, 2011)

Trincomalee has always struck me as a magical place, and I have often wondered whether we might not all have been much better off had President Jayewardene moved the capital there rather than ten miles down the road from Colombo to a place that had no merit, even in his eyes, except for its name. And, even if that idea might be fanciful, our failure over nearly half a decade to develop decent communications, to improve connections between the different areas of Sri Lanka, has struck me as a mark of monumental foolishness, which certainly contributed to the spread of resentment and then terror.
Individual Innovations and Initiative
(January 21, 2011)

Trincomalee is associated in my mind with two individuals, whose life and work continue to provide guidelines for effort. The first was Denzil Kobbekaduwa, who was in charge of the area when I visited in 1988, to check on the schools furniture project. That was the time of the IPKF, and one could sense some tensions, even though in general officers on both sides behaved with perfect conviviality at army headquarters.
Independence Day Celebrations at the Rehabilitation Centres
(January 21, 2011)

I was in Vavuniya on Independence Day, to join in celebrations at a couple of the Rehabilitation Centres. These had been planned by the officials administering the camps under the authority of the Commissioner General of Rehabilitation, but our Confidence Building and Stabilization Measures Project had assisted with the arrangements. Ironically, the main funding we receive, from UNHCR, cannot be used for these youngsters, just as for some strange reason the World Food Programme does not feed them. Fortunately the government is more enlightened and sees these victims of the LTTE’s forced recruitment as deserving of all possible assistance and encouragement.
Returns for the Old and the Recently Displaced
(January 21, 2011)

After the Independence Day celebrations at the Rehabilitation Centres in Vavuniya, I visited a couple of areas that had been resettled. I had been particularly anxious to get to the Rice Bowl in Mannar, since that had been the initial target for rapid resettlement. In the days when the hostile claimed that we intended to keep the displaced permanently in Vavuniya, we were well aware that the President was pressing for rapid cultivation by the returnees.
Promoting Prosperity and Reconciliation in Amparai
(January 21, 2011)

I had not been to Amparai for the whole of 2009, so I was wholly unprepared for the tremendous progress the District had registered since my previous visit in the middle of 2008, as Head of the Peace Secretariat. Then the citizens’ committees we met were still worried about security considerations, about restrictions on movement that restrained economic activity, even about the occasional massacre perpetrated by the tiny groups of Tiger guerillas who had survived the clearing of the East.

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