 Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the United States Institute of Peace. My name is Bill Taylor. I'm the Executive Vice President here, and very pleased to have you all with us this afternoon. We're very pleased to be co-hosting this event with the Heritage Foundation, and so we're very happy to have Walter Lohman here and Lisa Curtis here from the Heritage Foundation. We also, of course, have delegation from right across the street here from the State Department. We have Assistant Secretary Biswa, who will speak here in a moment, and several of her team. We're very pleased to have that group here, so welcome. We have ambassadors going both ways, both in both directions are here. And we're here, of course, with the visit of the Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka. And it's a great honor, sir, to have you here. We at the Institute focus on conflict, conflict around the world, and the Congress established this 30 years ago to try to prevent or resolve conflicts. And we do a little bit of success, but as you can tell in the world, we've got a lot of work to do. We've not succeeded, but Sri Lanka is moving in a good direction. And so this is a great opportunity here to learn, Mr. Foreign Minister, from you about what's going well in Sri Lanka, what other places conflicts can learn from your experience. So it's a great opportunity for us. Institute of Peace has done some work in Sri Lanka over the past several years. We have helped launch and design a nationwide interfaith coalition of male and female clergy. Last year with our support, this group consulted with over 15,000 people to develop a roadmap to reconciliation. Our current partner, the Center for Peacebuilding and Reconciliation in Sri Lanka, well-known non-governmental organization recently won the Nwano Peace Prize in recognition of their contribution to peacebuilding in Sri Lanka. Earlier, we helped establish and then provided support to a non-official group of friends of Sri Lanka, led by that great American and my former boss, Rich Armitage, whom Bill knows well. And so we've done some work, Mr. and Sri Lanka, that we'd like to continue to do. And this is an example, this event today is an example of the kind of things we'd like to do. Since 1992, we've given a half a million dollars in grants to Sri Lankan organizations involved in research and policy development, such as a recent study on challenges of women and children IDPs that has informed government policies. We have supported on-the-ground activities such as psychosocial support to survivors of the violence in the north. We remain committed to partnering with those working for peace in Sri Lanka. Recently, we've been sharing with Sri Lanka partners USIP's research into effective processes for advancing reconciliation and transitional justice in post-war environments. So that's my introduction. We look forward to Lisa Curtis' moderation, but to introduce the Foreign Minister, please welcome Nisha Vishal, the Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia. Well, thank you, Ambassador Taylor. It's such a pleasure for me to be here today at the US Institute for Peace, which as an institution has long sought to support and give voice to the constituencies for peace-building and reconciliation. And I also want to thank the Heritage Foundation, especially Lisa Curtis and Walter Lohman, not only for cosponsoring this discussion, but for the excellent body of work that they have been putting out on Sri Lanka and on South Asia in general. And let me also acknowledge the incredible work leadership of Sri Lankan Ambassador to the United States for South Karyawasam, as well as our own excellent ambassador, Atul Keshav, who are here in the audience. And another friend of Sri Lanka, a longtime friend, is the Indian DCM Ambassador Tharanjit Singh Sandhu, who has also joined us for the discussion today. Welcome to all of you. I must say this is a very fitting venue to talk about one of the more optimistic narratives on peace-building that is unfolding today in the world where such narratives are all too rare and where headlines today are dominated by news of sectarian conflicts and of the politics of division. Sri Lanka's journey has had more than its fair share of darkness and division and of the devastation of war. But what is remarkable is the resilience of its democracy and the determination of its people to seek out a new future for all of its citizens and to refuse to remain mired in the past. I see Ambassador Subasinga is also in the audience. It's good to see you. That determination found voice in the January 8th election of 2015, which brought in a new leadership that rejected the politics of fear and division and sought to bring about a unified Sri Lanka. It was a team that was elected with the broadest coalition of political parties, bringing together Sinhalese and Tamil, bringing together Buddhists, Hindus, Christians, and Muslims. A true rainbow coalition, as the foreign minister has been known to say. And the government of President Sirusena, Prime Minister Wikramasinghe, has also made clear that as it seeks to bring about a new future for the country, it also seeks to repair and restore Sri Lanka's relations and reputations with the international community. That effort has been led principally by the gentleman you are going to hear from today, His Excellency Mangala Samarawira, the foreign minister of Sri Lanka. The foreign minister has been a key player in the remarkable transformation of the U.S.-Sri Lanka relationship. His multiple visits to the United States as well as to other capitals, his relationship with Secretary Kerry, with Ambassador Samantha Power, with Susan Rice, and his principled advocacy for restoring Sri Lanka standing in the global community through engagement rather than avoidance, through cooperation rather than conflict, has won the respect of his peers and resulted remarkably in a resolution last September in the Human Rights Council in Geneva, which was co-sponsored and co-introduced by not just the United States, its traditional sponsor, but by Sri Lanka, by the government, by the people of Sri Lanka, along with all of our other international partners. Now I must underscore that the Sri Lankan journey is still unfolding with many steep hills yet to be climbed and many turns in the road ahead. Much of the hard work of reconciliation and justice still lies before us. But as Secretary Kerry said during his historic visit and reiterated in his meeting with the minister earlier today, this is a journey that Sri Lanka does not have to make alone. The United States will be there as a friend and as a partner. In fact, it is this pledge of partnership that brings Minister Samir Reira to Washington this week as we launch our first ever US-Sri Lanka partnership dialogue. Through this partnership dialogue, we are establishing a forum to engage and advance all aspects of our relationship in a comprehensive discussion that brings together the strategic and security components, democratic governance and human rights agenda, as well as addressing the economic challenges. So, Your Excellency, let me just say, it is a heavy burden of expectation and responsibility that rests on your shoulders. But I know that your shoulders are broad, that your back is strong, and that your commitment runs deep. Now, I'm not going to regale our audience with the 30 years of leadership and accomplishment that the Foreign Minister brings with him. I know you can all see that in the bios. Let me just say that as the eyes of the world are on Sri Lanka, the country is fortunate to have you representing them on the world stage. Ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, I want to present to you his Excellency, the Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka, Mangala Samir Reira. Thank you, Nisha, for your extremely kind words. Ladies and gentlemen, it is indeed a great pleasure to be here today and speak to you about our recent experiences in Sri Lanka. In fact, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Ambassador William Taylor, the Executive Vice President of the USIP, and also Walter Lohman, Director Asian Studies Center of the Heritage Foundation for organizing this discussion today. Ladies and gentlemen, last February, in fact, exactly one year and one week ago, soon after the election of President Maitre Palasari Sena on the 8th of January, I visited Washington for the first time as Foreign Minister of the Maitre Palasari Sena Vikram Singh Administration and stood before a similar audience in this great city and outlined our plans and vision for the new Sri Lanka. It has merely been a year, but looking back, it seems as if several years have passed since then, a year on much has happened and much has been achieved. And as Nisha said, much has to be achieved. The relationship between our two countries alone has experienced a veritable renaissance since the first visit of Assistant Secretary of State, Biswal in January of 2015, weeks, few days after the presidential election, and then again in August immediately after the general elections. In such a short period of time, our relations have been strengthened to unprecedented heights. In fact, although our countries have maintained cordial ties for many, many years since independence, we can be proud that this cordiality has now, especially within the last year, has now blossomed into what I would like to call a very, very special friendship. In addition to Assistant Secretary Biswal's four visits this year, we have also had the honor of hosting a number of very senior US leaders this year. May 2015 saw Secretary Kerry visit Colombo, the first official visit by a US Secretary of State in over four decades. His visit was followed by a visit by Ambassador Samantha Power, and her visit in November marked by her trademark style of interacting actively and freely with all whom she encountered infused US-Free Lanka relations with renewed energy. Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Rights and Labor Tom Malinowski also visited us and has remained consistently engaged with our progress. And finally, Ambassador Thomas Shannon's visit in December saw us firm up the details of the partnership dialogue between our two countries, which is what brings me back to this wonderful city for its inaugural meeting tomorrow morning. My topic today, ladies and gentlemen, is advancing reconciliation and development in Sri Lanka. I will not attempt to list the many steps that have been undertaken to foster reconciliation, strengthen good governance, the rule of law, accountability and human rights since January 2015. This audience is an informed audience, and I'm sure you all follow Sri Lanka with a keen eye. Therefore, I will try to focus more on the specific topic. Ladies and gentlemen, reconciliation and development, as you would agree, are intertwined and it is difficult, almost impossible to have one without the other. In fact, at the time we gained independence in February 1948, Sri Lanka, then of course known as Ceylon, was in a unique position amongst the countries in the developing world. As she had experience of representative government and was the oldest democracy in Asia. In fact, as you know, the Universal franchise was introduced in Sri Lanka as early as 1931. And development indicators that were unparalleled in the developing world was also one of our proud claims at that period. In fact, an editorial published, I believe it was in the London Times on the 5th of February 1948, the day after we achieved independence, predicted a very bright future for the newly independent Ceylon and said that Sri Lanka, with its human resources and natural resources, no doubt be the Switzerland of the East in no time. That was the kind of expectations the world had of Sri Lanka in 1948. The different communities in the country showed promise of being able to live and work towards common national goals in peace, harmony and unity, up to independence. They had worked together in the past to gain independence from the British, despite the fact that they followed different faiths, spoke different languages and followed different customs. However, what followed after independence is something that the world knows only too well. We made mistakes which saw our country plunge into torment and conflict for well over three decades. The failure to manage such justifiable grievances led to conflict and violence. Sri Lanka's post-independence leadership, I must admit, was unable to come to terms with a diversity as a multi-ethnic, multicultural, multi-religious and multi-lingual country. As a result, these grievances were transformed into inter-communal resentment and feeling of discrimination and unfair treatment. Our post-independent leaders who were acutely aware of the diverse character of Ireland sadly faltered at decisive moments and failed to stand up to extremism when they should have. As a result, unmet grievances led to violence and ultimately created the conditions necessary for terrorism which then transformed into a brutal war, as we all know. By the time the war ended, there were serious allegations of violations of human rights and war crimes hurled against both parties to the conflict and Sri Lanka was by then facing virtual international isolation. Nonetheless, ladies and gentlemen, there was a collective sigh of relief across the entire country and many hoped in May 2009 that it would be the beginning of a new era of democracy and reconciliation in Sri Lanka. An unprecedented window of opportunity had to win the hearts and minds of the long-suffering people of the north and the east suddenly opened at that moment. However, unfortunately that was not to be. The Rajapaksha administration, emboldened by their military victory over the LTT, went on a rampage of what I would call a rampage of triumphalism alienating the Tamil people even further instead of using the goodwill generated in the war victory for healing that historic opportunity was cruelly squandered to further the dynastic ambitions of the ruling family at the time with the possibility of establishing a one-party state. However, the victory of Presidency Sena in 2015 in January and the victory of the United National Front for Good Governance at the Parliament elections in August last year enabled the formation of a national unity government for the first time in the history of independence Sri Lanka. It unexpectedly heralded a new era for Sri Lanka. Traditional rivals in Sri Lankan politics, the United National Party led by Prime Minister Rani Vikram Singh and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party led by President Sri Sena came together to form a grand coalition for the first time since independence heralding a new culture of consensual politics with the determination to create much needed political and policy stability. Today, for the first time in our country's history, under Presidents Sri Sena and Prime Minister Vikram Singh, this myopia that plagued our nation since independence has been set aside. The temptation of political parties to follow a path of confrontation in order to achieve short-term political gains over the long-term interests of the people is now over and hopefully forever over. We also have in our leader of opposition, the Honorable R. Sambandhan, the leader of the TNA, a wise, committed and respected politician with the resolve to work together to ensure that we do not let our country lose yet another golden window of opportunity. The National Unity Government has not wasted any time, ladies and gentlemen, in making the fullest use of this historic opportunity. In September last year, the government made a commitment in the form, as Nisha said, of co-sponsoring a resolution at the Human Rights Council in Geneva to strengthen good governance, foster reconciliation, promote human rights, establish accountability under the rule of law and ensure non-recurrence. Our government is totally committed to the successful implementation of this resolution, not because of any desire to appease the international community or international opinion, but because we sincerely believe, because we are convinced that Sri Lanka must, even at this late stage, come to terms with its past if we are to forge ahead and secure the future that Sri Lankan people truly deserve. As President Sri Sena said just earlier this month, on the 4th of February in his Independence Day speech, I quote, it is now time for us to seize the current opportunity that is before us to implement the provisions of the resolution, not because of international pressure, but because as a nation we must implement these provisions for the sake of restoring the dignity of our nation, our people and our military, in order for Sri Lanka to regain her due position as a strong democracy among the community of nations. In that resolution, ladies and gentlemen, we outlined a four pillar strategy based on the principles of truth seeking, accountability, reparations and non-recurrence. The strategy resulted in a commitment to form a commission for truth, reconciliation, justice and non-recurrence, an office on missing persons, a judicial mechanism of special courts to punish those who may have indulged in serious human rights violations and an office for reparations which will be set up by statute. We also said that the design of mechanisms will be preceded by a process of consultations involving all stakeholders, including victims on all sides, which will inform the design of the mechanisms. In fact, a consultation task force consisting of 11 eminent public figures has been appointed by the government to carry out the public consultations. The task force is currently working on consulting experts in finalizing the questions for the process and will be appointing provincial and district task forces to conduct face-to-face consultations, and this group was introduced and presented to the civil society groups in Jaffna two weeks ago by me and the work is now underway. In the meantime, with the assistance of the United Nations Peace Building Fund, the Office for the National Unity and Reconciliation and the Ministry of Resettlement are carrying out reconciliation related projects, including programs aimed at creating understanding among communities, psychosocial and livelihood support. Another important and essential component to ensure non-recurrence we said is the introduction of a new constitution, a constitution that guarantees among other democratic reforms the right of minorities in Sri Lanka. Addressing the parliament on the 9th of January, the president of Sri Lanka urged all members of parliament to extend their support to the adoption of a new constitution and to those who argue that the executive presidency should be retained because that was the only means by which Sri Lanka was able to combat terrorism successfully. He responded, Sri Lanka, rather than continuing with the executive presidency anticipating a war in future, Sri Lanka should complete the reforms that are necessary to ensure that war and violence will never occur again. The government's resolve to secure reconciliation, win the peace and ensure non-recurrence is firm. But in order to win the peace, development, rising standards for each and every Sri Lankans, of course, is a sine qua non. All good intentions and politics will not succeed unless all stakeholders feel that their development is being cared for and their lives are improving. Therefore, winning the peace is just as much about jobs, education, healthcare and infrastructure for all Sri Lankans as it is about political reforms. The peace dividend must be felt in economic terms by all sections of Sri Lankan society. The peace dividend for the unemployed youth must be greater and better job opportunities for the housewives, better living standards for the farmers, higher prices and access to markets for the students, most schools, technical colleges and universities with better trained teachers and lecturers and for the elderly, greater access to hospitals and free medicine. The government of Sri Lanka has no doubt as the necessary political and economic reforms take place, investments and trade and ultimately jobs, growth and economic development will follow. But as the relationship between peace and development is holistic and dynamic, the faster the peace dividend, the greater and faster the likelihood and durability of peace. In a nutshell, the people's purses must also feel the benefits of the reconciliation, peace and ethnic harmony program which we are conducting now and they must feel the difference as quickly as possible. Therefore, just as the world rallies around Sri Lanka with advice and support for our reconciliation process, at this critical time of transition, it is also imperative that the world rallies around us to kickstart the economy and catalyze our development journey. The government is working hard on this front too. We are putting in place the framework to sustain and accelerate Sri Lanka's 6% plus growth rate, create a million jobs in five years and improve living standards through an ambitious economic development drive. The government's economic strategy is based on attracting foreign direct investment, making Sri Lanka's exports more competitive, promoting tourism and improving productivity through education and knowledge transfer. Sri Lanka is at the centre of a rapidly growing Indian Ocean region. Let's try the main east-west shipping route and next to one of the world's largest markets, India. We are leveraging this unique geoeconomic location to accelerate growth. Negotiations are already underway to deepen our existing free trade agreement with India, which we hope to complete by the middle of the year. We plan to do the same with Pakistan with whom we also have a free trade agreement. These agreements combined with our excellent air and sea connectivity, ladies and gentlemen, to the subcontinent will help cement our position as a gateway to the Indian subcontinent. We are also improving our market access further abroad due to the previous government's human rights violations. We lost the GSP Plus concessions to the European Union. Following the successful visit of the EU working group on human rights Sri Lanka, we are now finalising our formal application for GSP Plus re-application and we hope to regain the facility by the end of the year. We are also already in discussion to sign a free trade agreement with China. The United States is our single largest export market accounting for a quarter of Sri Lanka's exports. Sri Lanka has some concessionary access to the US market through the GSP facility and has also signed a trade and investment framework agreement. Upgrading these ties by signing a free trade agreement will go a long way in propelling Sri Lanka to achieving its economic development. In addition, the government is very seriously exploring the possibility of applying to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership. A leading government think tank is preparing a feasibility study and I believe that there will be a high-level delegation here in June this year led by the Ministry of International Trade to discuss these issues. A concerted effort is also underway to improve the business climate domestically far reaching governance reforms that are creating a rules-based, have structurally made investments and business more secure and certain. Sri Lanka is taking measures to increase investors' ease of doing business and confidence more directly. For example, we are bringing a number of government agencies together to create a one-stop investment and trade facilitation shop under the Agency of Development and the director or the head designate of that organization is also here with us in Washington in our delegation and will be participating in tomorrow's dialogue. We are reviewing our laws and regulations to create a simple rules-based business environment including those related to land ownership as well as tariffs and para tariffs. We had adopted policies that enable private enterprise to try, for example, Sri Lanka has one of the lowest income tax rates in the world at 15%. Together, these reforms alongside our educated workforce and solid infrastructure are making Sri Lanka the most attractive, secure and competitive investment destination in the Asian region. As a result, during meetings with investors and businesses over the last few months, such as Prime Minister Vikram Singh's meeting at the World Economic Forum at Davos and during President Sri Sena's state visit to Berlin and Vienna last week, we have seen extraordinary and unprecedented levels of interest in investing in Sri Lanka. The interest was well beyond our own expectations and we are confident that interest will quickly materialize into tangible commitments over the coming months. Sri Lanka is also experiencing tourism boom with arrivals last year growing by nearly 20% compared to 2014, which also saw double-digit growth. Ladies and gentlemen, but we also need to rapidly improve living standards across the board, especially the most vulnerable, perhaps faster-than-the-time legs that inevitably accompany investment and trade-led growth at this critical time of transition, demonstrating that there is a peace dividend of fundamental importance. We are working closely with the Millennium Challenge Corporation, USAID and other US partners in this effort. We are also working closely with other bilateral and multilateral partners, including the World Bank and the ADB. But we need further and faster support in poverty alleviation, urban development, infrastructure development, education, particularly vocational, technical and English language training and agricultural productivity improvements. Ladies and gentlemen, our aim is to succeed for the sake of all our people, indicating the faith reposed on us by our friends in the international community, but more than anything else to do right by the people of our nation and our future generations and secure for them the destiny we were unable to achieve for 68 years since independence. I believe that the government and people of Sri Lanka will, with the help of friends in the international community, including the United States of America, finally succeed in creating a country where each individual can live and work with dignity, with self-esteem and confidence in the future. Allow me, ladies and gentlemen, finally to conclude by quoting from one of my own speeches at the Human Rights Council last September. I quote, Therefore, I say to the skeptics, don't judge us by the broken promises, experiences and u-turns of the past. Let us define, define and create our future by our hopes and aspirations and not be held back by the fears and prejudices of the past. Let us not be afraid to dream, let us not be afraid to engage in meaningful dialogue aimed at finding solutions to problems as opposed to pointing fingers, heaping blame and scoring political points at the expense of future generations. My plea to you, ladies and gentlemen, is trust us, join us to work together and create the momentum required to move forward and take progressive, meaningful and transformative steps to create a new Sri Lanka. I thank you. This side, though. Yes. So I'm Lisa Curtis with the Heritage Foundation and it's a pleasure to be here to moderate the question and answer session with the Honorable Minister. I'm going to start by asking a couple of questions of my own and then I'll open it for you, the audience. Mr. Minister, you talked about the importance of the peace dividend and economic development in the war-torn areas of the North and East and I wondered how important it is to have demilitarization of these areas in order to encourage greater private sector investment and I guess the question is, has the heavy military involvement in these areas in a sense crowded out opportunities for private investment and economic development? So that's my first question. My second question is about the involvement of religious communities in the ethnic reconciliation process and the Prime Minister has talked about the establishment of compassionate councils which my understanding is these are councils that would be headed by religious leaders that would assess whether those who have committed human rights abuses would be absolved or provided amnesty or not. So I wondered if you could talk about those compassionate councils and whether this will be an integral part of the reconciliation process moving forward. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, as for demilitarization, I would agree with you that is a priority if we are to develop the North and the East and that is why the new government as it came into power the first, one of the first acts it did was to appoint civilians as governors of the northern and eastern province. To the north we appointed a very highly respected civil servant who was also the architect of the LLRC report and to the east we also appointed a very senior civil servant who has been involved in bringing the different ethnic communities together for many years. And subsequent to that we have also been working on releasing many of the lands which were held under the military and so far I believe we have released the Secretary of Defense who is the man in charge of the resettlement process and of releasing the land is also here with us to join tomorrow's partnership dialogue. Over 3,000 acres had so far been given back to the people of that area and I believe that there is a further 600 acres to be released in the next few weeks I was told by Hon. Swaminathan who is the minister in charge of it and the balanced land will also be subsequently released and also the conducting of commercial activities by the army in many of those areas have also now been curtailed and they have given us an assurance that even some of the hotels which the army is running in the north and east will be handed back to civilians by June this year so most certainly demilitarization as you very rightly said is an important factor in the reconciliation process and also in getting development for the north and east. As for your second question the Compassionate Council is of course one of many options which have been discussed by the government regarding the truth-seeking mechanism we are committed to set up. In fact there is a technical group of persons going to South Africa in the first week of March because the South African government was very keen to help us with their experiences but having said that I personally am of the view that the South African format of the Truth Commission may not be the most suitable for us in Sri Lanka this whole concept of confession and forgiveness is perhaps not in keeping with what the Sri Lankan people desire but we are willing to learn from them because they have a lot of experiences in that field and we are also speaking with several other experts about the type of truth and reconciliation mechanism we will be setting up and finally whatever we do especially subsequent to the consultations with the state stakeholders I believe it would be something which is uniquely Sri Lankan. Yes and we talked in the green room about the Tunisian example of national dialogue and the secret to the success of the Tunisian national dialogue was the involvement of the civil society so I think we talked about that as a possible example for Sri Lankan as well. In fact the Tunisian model is something which has certain positive aspects for us in Sri Lanka as well but as you rightly said again the whole initiative was led by civil society persons and that is why we have also initiated the consultations process and given the task over to the Sri Lankan civil society and 11 very capable members of civil society have been entrusted with the task of consulting all the stakeholders involved before giving their recommendations to us. Great thank you I'm now going to open the floor to your questions I would ask that you raise your hand and when I call on you wait for the microphone to get to you and then please state your name and affiliation and try to keep it to a question try to keep it to one question so if we have any questions from the audience I think the first hand I saw go up was the woman in the middle Angel Sharma American Bar Association rule of law initiative with Sri Lanka adopting a domestic judicial mechanism for reconciliation is the government looking to build legal capacity within the state or support judicial reform and if you are what are those gaps within the legal infrastructure that could be supported? She's asking about legal capacity just what judicial reform take two more questions I'm going to go ahead and take one or two more questions and bundle them together Jay from Hindu American Projects Thank you I'm Jay Kinsara from the Hindu American Foundation Chief Minister of Ignatian of the Northern Province was here sometime last year she also was requesting the United States assistance with a devolution of powers from the federal government to state governments what is the process on that and how can that be implemented faster? And I'll take one more I think the woman here in the white right in front of Hello, thank you Sneha Thyle from Johns Hopkins School of International Studies Could you speak to the role of the diaspora in the peace process moving forward and whether there is a roadmap for engagement? Thank you Can I take this one? Yes Thank you As for judicial reform this was one of the tasks the new government undertook as it came into power as you know the judiciary in Sri Lanka was highly politicized over the years and under the 18th amendment which was introduced by President Rajapaksha in September of 2010 it become the judiciary directly became more or less an appendage of the executive and whatever independence it may have enjoyed until then was totally lost so one of the first legislation which was brought into parliament by President Suresena was the 18th amendment to the constitution which gave which made the judicial commission, the government's servants commission the bribery commission and electoral commission total independence and as a result I believe the judiciary is now on the right track but having gone through the experiences having gone through the politicization for 10 years it will take a little more time for it to be considered a credible entity we have also taken other forms of judicial reforms and the minister in charge is now basically working on it not only judicial reforms but even the PTA the prevention of terrorism act which has been there for a long time has now been revisited in fact we invited the law commission of Sri Lanka headed by one of our leading presidents council Mr. Ramesh Dhaka De Silva to submit a new draft and the terms of reference for that draft was to repeal the PTA and instead to draw up legislation which will meet antiterrorist requirements in keeping with best modern practices elsewhere in the world and just four or five days ago the new draft has been submitted to the government once the cabinet discusses it we are trying to ensure that the PTA is repealed as quickly as possible if I may go to the second question about the devolution of PALS and Chief Minister Vigneshwaran in fact one of the principle reasons why we are drafting a new constitution is to ensure that the diversity of Sri Lanka is recognized in this constitution because Sri Lanka as you know has had two constitution since it became a republic in 1972 the first was a 1972 constitution and then of course the constitution in 1978 but both we feel are greatly flawed for the simple reason that it does not take into account the diversity of Sri Lankan society that it does not take into account that Sri Lanka is a multi-ethic, multi-cultural, multi-lingual, multi-religious society and we want this our new constitution to reflect this diversity while maintaining the unity and the sovereignty of the country and in order to do so there are already certain committees working and I know that the TNA is actively participating in these committees and I'm sure that Chief Minister Vigneshwaran's views would also be presented through these committees for consideration as for the diaspora, yes in fact it is one of our main trusts it has been one of the main trusts in the last 12 months to engage the diaspora in fact we have had several discussions with the Tamil diaspora in the last actually even before coming into government in London and Singapore and subsequent to coming into government we have been talking to different sections of the diaspora in fact this morning I met members of the Tamil diaspora here in Washington who also expressed a great deal of interest to work in unison with the new government and we also delisted, deproscribed some of the diaspora organizations which were listed as terrorist organizations before by the Rajapaksha Redheem out of the 16 I believe we delisted 8 yes we delisted 8 and also delisted nearly 200 odd individuals who also listed as terrorists and we are also hoping to have a festival for the diaspora towards the end of the year in Sri Lanka and we have invited all members of the, I mean all sections of the diaspora to come and come to Sri Lanka and participate in it okay I'll take the person in the middle right here and it's Sean second and then you be the third so we'll take three questions first right here Hi, Maria Ruthas from People for Equality and Relief in Lanka the US government and the High Commissioner have stressed the importance of any judicial and accountability mechanism to have the confidence of the victim community and the international community however recent statements by the government, by the president have thrown doubts on the government's sincerity and the government's interpretation of the resolution what will credible international participation in an accountability process look like in your eyes Sean Thanks Lisa, I'm Sean Donnelly from the US Council for International Business used to deal with the minister when I was a diplomat in Sri Lanka could you talk a little more minister about the role for religious leaders in the in rebuilding the relationships in Sri Lanka and moving forward thanks Sean My name is Sean Sundram from Washington DC I've been here for the years as a Tamil from North and East I enjoy this country as a freedom, I really enjoy this country I got a question for you, I had the same question to the former Foreign Minister Peter came here when I was going to pull the army from North and East but he said he promised the American government he was going to pull but he never did, he lied to American people to lie to me he never said when you're going to pull the armies from North and East but you never go to that area but please tell me when you're going to pull the army from North and East but my brothers couldn't breathe in North and East they have problem North and East North and East are Tamil area, there's no mostly Tamil area other one you said you're releasing a land he said but we have a record of we are checking how much land you're releasing what he said the number is totally wrong so we are not believing what is the number he gave please explain why you're not releasing the land alright so first was international yes about international participation yes as you rightly mentioned that in our Geneva resolution we committed to have a judicial process with international participation and now we are in fact one of the reasons we have initiated the consultation process is also to decide on at what level that international participation ought to be frankly we too admit and if you read the minutes of the Hansard after the debate on Geneva immediately after that was passed in October you found that even some of the more nationalist parties in parliament did talk about the need for international participation and also there are many maybe across the board there was a general agreement that there has to be special courts be set up in Sri Lanka if that process is to have any credibility at all because as I said before over the years over the last ten years the credibility of the Sri Lankan judiciary was totally lost because of the politicization of the process by the previous government so I think it is only fair that the victims of the war would want some form of guarantee that the new courts will deliver justice and accountability in a fair manner and for that we are willing to consider the participation of international actors they could be judges, they could be forensic experts investigators, prosecutors all these options are being looked at the president as he has mentioned several times in public has expressed his own opinion because in Sri Lanka like all other things there are various schools of thought on how this ought to be handled at one extreme there is one school which says there has to be the courts must be with only foreign judges there is another school of thought which says there shouldn't be any form of foreign participation at all but between those two there are many many acceptable and valid and credible options available to Sri Lanka we will look into all those options and come up with a court which is not only credible but also acceptable to the victims of the war and we will work the final contours and the architecture of such a court in the next five to six months after the consultations with the TNA and other parties as well as for the role of religious leaders yes I certainly feel when reverse that religious leaders must play an important role in forging reconciliation in Sri Lanka I mean unfortunately in Sri Lanka at the moment there are certain persons who call themselves religious leaders who are far too busy fanning the flames of mistrust, distrust and extremism again rather than helping us to do so but I'm glad to say that the most venerable high priest of Sri Lanka as well as the leaders of the other religions are very enthusiastic about what we are doing and they certainly will have a role to play in the reconciliation process thirdly your question about pulling the army as I said initially in answer to your question demilitarization process has begun and the facts and figures I'm afraid are true if you have any doubts that these are cooked up figures that used to be I mean please let us know where you think that the figures are misleading and we will certainly look into it but most of all I would like to invite you to come to Sri Lanka please do I mean you will be allowed to go to any part of the country your security will be assured and you certainly will find especially if you have been back to Sri Lanka for 30 or years I can assure you that you will find a new Sri Lanka and especially at this time of the year perhaps you should come to a part of the world and be with us but I can only talk about the last 12 months there's a huge difference and of course I mean we won't be pulling the whole army back because like all other parts of Sri Lanka there has to be a certain degree of military presence in all parts of Sri Lanka but we will ensure that the military presence would be the absolute minimum finally but it has been out of 180,000 we have reduced by 37% no no what is the reduction now in the yeah that's what I said so 37% has been reduced and we will continue to do so that is an assurance I can give you and I think if you actually can participate in the process when we are having perhaps the diaspora festival please come over and see for yourself okay we'll take another round of questioning Aziz Hanifa one and then the second two people on the edge there Mr. Minister Aziz Hanifa editor of India Broad and Rediff.com welcome back to Washington I am a Sri Lankan American journalist based in Washington during the Rajapaksa regime journalists in Sri Lanka first became an endangered species and how much of total freedom of expression is allowed in Sri Lanka today under the new government and have journalists in Sri Lanka who are exiled started coming back to Sri Lanka without fear of persecution or retribution and when is the government going to bring to book and to justice those people who are involved in the brutal killings of Lassander and other journalists okay Thank you last year you said Mr. Rajapaksa and his family had about 18 billion stashed away which country are those 18 billion in and why has the Sri Lankan government not been able to get back those 18 billion and more broadly if you could sort of lay the scene on the corruption probes against Mr. Rajapaksa Rajapaksa and where they're headed Yes, my name is Bronson Percival I was a local think tank accountability is a very sensitive and touchy subject and one can understand the desire to come up with a process which is fair for accountability but is there some sort of a sense on the part of the Sri Lankan government perhaps a roadmap or some sort of idea about when the process may be finished when the sunset may take place when reconciliation may have been achieved Yeah, we'll just take those three Yes, the first one about journalists I would say today unlike the era you just talked about there's total and absolute freedom for the media to write as they wish for example in fact the Prime Minister himself raised it in parliament where the media one of the pro-Rajapaksa media which is still very much alive and kicking in Sri Lanka called this very well known opera singer Sri Lankan opera singer who sang at the Independence Day celebrations a traditional song about Lord Buddha in an operatic manner which was appreciated by many but he was called a bitch and many other names over the television and that shows to our extent the media is free in Sri Lanka some are beginning to talk about the freedom of the wild ass because it has gone from one extreme to the other but as for taking action regarding the brutal killings of people like Lassanta and others the inquiries are going on in fact the inquiry regarding the assassination of Lassanta Vikramathunga is moving extremely well but for obvious reasons until all the suspects have been rounded up details have to be curtailed but I can assure you that especially the investigations about Lassanta Vikramathunga and Aknilikoda is moving forward and I also heard few days ago that the president the president is also thinking of appointing a presidential commission to look into other attacks against media personnel during that area including the attack on Porta Lajayanta the attack on the Cirasa newsroom the attack on the Lankai news website are all going to be investigated through a presidential commission so again we are giving pride of place to some of these issues which we said we will take up during the last election and then the gentleman behind him asked about the Rajapaksha millions yes I still say that millions and millions not rupees dollars are stashed away in fact we have got the support of many international agencies the inquiries are going reasonably well in fact we have also got even the star initiative of the World Bank the stolen assets recovery unit working for the Sri Lankan government as well as several other agencies in different parts of the world but as the star unit and many others have told us these take time because they are stashed away in offshore companies under different names and one investigation may take maybe 5-6 years in fact they told us that in seeking the millions robbed by the Egyptian Mubarak and then even after all these years they have only managed to get back to the country about 1% of what they are supposed to have stolen so I can assure you the investigations are going on and in fact his own second son has been arrested for it is a very serious case of money laundering and that is merely the tip of the iceberg the road map the third one was about a road map and a timeline to bring about reconciliation of course reconciliation does not only mean setting up tooth commissions special courts and other institutions for reconciliation we also need to win the hearts and minds of the people so for that you can't really set time targets but as for the setting up these mechanisms are concerned we have set ourselves a target of trying to do it within one year because we feel that this sort of thing has to be done during the early as a government is still in its early days because as time goes by things could become different in fact I remember Margaret Thatcher once said that you must always do the more controversial difficult aspects of your policy in the first year or two of any government and I think that stands true for us in Sri Lanka as well and that is why we have set a time frame of three months for the consultation process and once the consultation process is over based on those recommendations we will start setting up these institutions but there are one or two institutions which we need not stay we need not wait till the consultations are over like the office for the missing persons and the Truth Reconciliation Commission I think getting the legislation passed in parliament etc can be done within the next month or two Great, well unfortunately we're going to have to end it there the foreign minister is on a tight time schedule but I think you would agree with me that he was very forthcoming in his answers and very enlightening and if you'd just join me in giving him a quick round of applause Mr. Walter Lohman from the Asian Studies Center at the Heritage Foundation will close Walter Lohman from the Asian Studies Center at the Heritage Foundation well coming from the Heritage Foundation it's always good to end on a note from Margaret Thatcher the only thing better would be Ronald Reagan but maybe we'll save that for next time but I want to thank you Mr. Minister for some very interesting remarks very forward looking I found and I think that's an important aspect of the approach that you're taking currently to governance at the outset you describe US Sri Lanka Relations as a very very special friendship I found that encouraging to hear from both sides of the relationship the story of reconciliation that you told I think was also very encouraging to see that you're focused on the future as you are there's a lot that we can learn I think Ambassador Taylor mentioned at the beginning a lot that we can learn about conflicts elsewhere in the world there's a lot of things that you can learn from Tunisia and some of the other places that are dealing with reconciliation as well I think all would acknowledge however that we still have a long way to go in Sri Lanka alone it's only been one year a little more than one year as I think we all realize has gone by very quickly I was particularly interested in the connection you made between development and reconciliation and I think many of us watching Sri Lankan politics were expecting some focus on free market economy and I'm glad to hear that reflected in your remarks the focus on some of the ways we might do that through free trade agreements and TPP we've got some work to do on this side on TPP still in Washington so hopefully that's a going concern when it's time for Sri Lanka to join but that would be an excellent prospect it's an exciting time for US Sri Lanka relations exciting time for freedom democracy in Sri Lanka I want to close by just thanking USIP Ambassador Taylor for partnering with the Heritage Foundation I want to thank Assistant Secretary Biswal for joining you today you had a long way to walk but it's very windy so you get some dispensation for that Ambassador Keshav wherever he is Ambassador Keshav thank you for joining I'm so glad that so many people of such high ranking calibre here in Washington would join Ambassador Karyawasama thank you for joining us with that let me leave it there and just say I hope this is just the latest in a series of things that we can do with USIP from the heritage perspective in the coming years thank you