REFUGEE

The U.S. risks losing Sri Lanka as an ally unless it changes its relationship after Western criticism of human rights abuses prompted the country to seek closer ties with China, Myanmar and Iran, a Senate committee said.

The U.S. “cannot afford to ‘lose’ Sri Lanka,” the Committee on Foreign Relations said in a report. Relations won’t change overnight and the U.S. won’t ignore its concerns about the South Asian island nation’s political and humanitarian record, it said.

While the U.S., China and India share an interest in securing maritime trade routes in the Indian Ocean, the U.S. “has invested relatively few economic and security resources in Sri Lanka, preferring to focus instead on the political environment,” the committee said. Sri Lanka’s strategic importance to U.S. interests “has been neglected as a result.”

President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in May, ending its 26-year fight for a separate Tamil homeland in the country of 20 million people. Sri Lanka has called on western nations to help it rebuild after the war and stop raising the issues of human rights abuses and the speed of settling more than 280,000 mainly Tamil refugees held in transit camps in the north when the conflict ended.

Trade, Security

The U.S. should move to expand trade and security cooperation, which could help bring about political changes and promote reconciliation between the Tamil and Sinhalese communities, the Senate committee said. Tamils make up almost 12 percent of Sri Lanka’s population and Sinhalese account for 74 percent, according to a 2001 census.

The report is “quite positive” and sees Sri Lanka as strategically important, Mahinda Samarasinghe, the minister for disaster management and human rights, said by phone from the capital, Colombo, today.

“It looks for more constructive engagement with Sri Lanka, which is exactly what we would like to have with the U.S.,” he said. “It shows that the ‘naming and shaming game’ should not be the policy with Sri Lanka.”

The committee says the U.S. should assist Sri Lanka in its efforts to “usher in a durable peace” in the country, the minister said.

‘Downward Trajectory’

Sri Lanka considers its relationship with the U.S. to be “on a downward trajectory” after the war and criticisms of the delay in resettling displaced people “have fallen on deaf ears,” the committee said in its report.

“This growing rift in U.S.-Sri Lankan relations can be seen in Colombo’s realignment toward non-Western countries, who offer an alternative model of development that places greater value on security over freedoms,” it said.

Sri Lanka needs to promote reconciliation, share its plans for reconstruction and resettlement in the north with the public, protect and guarantee the freedom of movement of displaced people and allow a free and fair press, the committee said.

“Though the war is over, a culture of fear and paranoia permeates society, especially for journalists, which further erodes Sri Lanka’s standing in the international community and hampers its prospects for genuine peace,” it said.

The Obama administration should promote the reconciliation programs, expand U.S. economic assistance to the Sinhalese- majority south as well as Tamil areas in the north and east. The U.S. Congress should authorize a resumption of training of Sri Lankan military officials to help ensure human rights concerns are considered in future operations, the committee recommended.

Rights Abuses

The State Department in October released a congressionally mandated report listing accounts of army shelling of civilians and killings carried out by the LTTE in the final weeks of the war. Sri Lanka’s government has ordered an investigation into the allegations while saying the report is “unsubstantiated.”

The U.S. has been the leading donor of food and humanitarian assistance in 2009, providing more than $43 million, the Senate committee said. The Treasury Department abstained from joining a $2.6 billion International Monetary Fund loan to the country this year because of humanitarian concerns.

Efforts to rebuild after the conflict are helping the island’s $41 billion economy. The central bank forecasts it will grow as much as 6 percent next year after expanding about 3.5 percent in 2009.

The end to the war that killed about 90,000 people has helped push the benchmark Colombo All-share index up almost 90 percent this year.

The government says it plans to complete the settlement of about 112,000 civilians still in camps by the end of January. The program was delayed because security needed to be ensured in the north where more than 1.5 million mines have to be cleared, according to the army.