This week Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera is visiting Washington to participate in the first ever “U.S.-Sri Lanka Partnership Dialogue.” The dialogue—announced last May when John Kerry was the first U.S. secretary of state to visit Colombo in over 40 years–marks a milestone in U.S.-Sri Lanka relations, which have been on an upswing ever since Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena ousted Mahinda Rajapaksa from power in January 2015.
Foreign Minister Samaraweera’s visit to Washington follows a series of senior U.S. trips to Colombo, including U.S. Permanent Representative to the U.N. Samantha Power in November 2015 and Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Thomas Shannon in mid-December.
Sirisena was elected to power last year on a pledge to revive the country’s democratic process and to promote ethnic reconciliation. This marked a significant departure from the Rajapakse regime’s triumphalism after it defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2009 and its autocratic tendencies, which led to stifling of media freedom, judicial interference, and wide-scale nepotism. Five months after Sirisena assumed office, the Sri Lankan parliament passed Article 19 to curb the powers of the presidency by reinstating a two-term limit to the presidency, limiting the president’s ability to dissolve parliament, and reviving the Constitutional Council establishing independent commissions for the judiciary and police. It was a watershed moment for Sri Lankan democracy.
Parliamentary elections held last August that brought to power Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe’s United National Party further strengthened confidence that the country would continue down the path of reform and reconciliation. Indeed, the coalition government agreed last September to a U.N. resolution that called for postwar reconciliation and an investigation of alleged war crimes. Amnesty International said the adoption of the resolution was a “turning point” for human rights in Sri Lanka and that its implementation by the Sri Lankan government could help victims to “finally get the truth and justice they have been waiting for.”
This week’s partnership dialogue—which will focus on governance, development cooperation, and people-to-people ties—is an opportunity to strengthen U.S.-Sri Lanka ties and build deeper understanding on Sri Lanka’s path toward postwar reconciliation.
One question that needs to be resolved is that of foreign participation in the accountability process that was agreed to in September’s U.N. resolution. Sirisena recently said foreign participation was not needed for the inquiry into the war, even though the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, Keith Harper, said last month that Sri Lanka must have foreign judges in the accountability process.
The U.S. has much to offer Sri Lanka in terms of technical support and advice on investigating and documenting human rights abuses and developing systems of accountability.
As the accountability process and ethnic reconciliation move forward, the U.S. should also move to restore military training programs and revive security cooperation.
The U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Board of Directors’ decision last December to select Sri Lanka as eligible to develop a threshold program also is welcome news. Millennium Challenge Corporation programming could be particularly useful in encouraging business development and reviving economic activity in the war-torn areas of the north and east.
Sri Lanka has come far in its process to strengthen democracy and encourage postwar reconciliation in just one year. This week’s partnership dialogue is an excellent opportunity to demonstrate U.S. support for Sri Lanka’s new direction and to solidify ties between our two countries.
