Sri Lanka Makes Pledge for 'Sustainable Peace and Prosperity' at UN Summit

NEW YORK, Sept. 23 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- President Mahinda Rajapaksa of Sri Lanka today promised, "to deliver sustainable peace and prosperity to all" while ensuring that "terrorism will not be able to raise its ugly head again," as he addressed the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

He said: "The entire focus of our nation is now on building a lasting peace, healing wounds, ensuring economic prosperity and guaranteeing the rights of the whole nation to live in harmony.

"Economic and political reconciliation must go together," the President added. "Towards this end, constitutional changes which appropriately reflect aspirations of our people will be evolved with the full participation of all stakeholders."   

The President also used the opportunity to state that: "We believe that for the rebuilding and healing of our nation to succeed, the process must evolve from within. If history has taught us one thing, it is that imposed external solutions breed resentment and ultimately fail."

Among the highlights of the President's speech:

Reconciliation

• "Let me be clear, no nation on earth can wish Sri Lanka's Tamil community more good fortune than Sri Lanka itself."  
• "Let us join hands and break the bonds of mistrust to rise to new horizons."
• "Sri Lanka has already returned over 90 percent of the internally displaced persons to their original villages that were previously riddled with landmines."
• "Despite the lingering dangers that have remained, Sri Lanka has nevertheless repealed a substantial part of the emergency regulations so necessary during our conflict situation and plans to repeal a good part of the remainder in the coming months."

The Economy

• "Our economy is well on the way to realizing the dividend of peace. We are experiencing steady and sustained growth including during the last quarter of over eight per cent, moderate inflation and low interest rates."
•  "During the last five years, we saw our per capita income double. It is our ambition to take this further; to double yet again the present per capita income by 2016 and also become one of the top 30 countries for doing business by 2014."

Terrorism

•  "Those who were observing from afar, suggested that the Sri Lankan government should have conceded to the demands of the terrorists, need to be reminded that terror is terror, whatever mask it wears and however it is packaged."
• "Many of the atrocities of terrorism that the West has come to experience in recent times, the people of Sri Lanka were themselves the victims of, for nearly 30 years, losing almost 100,000 lives, among them being a President of Sri Lanka, a visionary leader of India and scores of intellectuals and politicians."

The Future

"As we rebuild our lands and our economy we hope sincerely that the international community will be prepared to take a practical approach to develop partnerships with Sri Lanka through international trade, investment and capacity building."

This has been distributed by Qorvis Communications, LLC on behalf of the government of Sri Lanka.  More information is available at the United States Department of Justice, Washington, DC.

SOURCE Government of Sri Lanka

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