Nicholas Burns confirms US hard line on Tamil Tigers: 'Asian Tribune' opinion reverberates at State Department briefing

Washington, D.C. 23 November (Asiantribune.com): The United States' policy
toward the crisis in Sri Lanka was clearly laid down by U.S. Under Secretary
of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns as never done before by his
government expressing total contempt of the Tamil Tigers, while espousing a
hard line policy on them, and interpreting the politico-military efforts now
undertaken by Sri Lanka as an attempt to secure the nation's territorial
integrity at the press briefing following the Co-Chair session on Tuesday,
November 21. Nicholas Burns : " The (Sri Lanka) government has a right to
protect the stability and security in the country. We meet often with the
government at the highest levels and consider the government to be a friend
to our country."
The question about America's dual approach which has confused many - Burns
taking a rigid attitude toward the Tigers while accepting Sri Lanka's
military strategy to safeguard its territorial integrity and sovereignty,
and his deputy in the State Department assistant secretary for South Asian
Affairs Richard Boucher advocating 'homeland for the Tamil minority' as a
pacifist attitude of resolving the crisis - was highlighted by Asian Tribune
in these columns on November 21, the day the Co-Chairs met in Washington to
discuss this South Asian nation's crisis situation.

The Asian Tribune opinion reverberated at the Washington press briefing
given by the representatives of the Tokyo Donor Conference which led Under
Secretary Nicholas Burns to very clearly state his government's position
which happen to be a hard line attitude toward Tiger terrorism and an
endorsement that the Government of Sri Lanka has the right to safeguard its
territorial integrity and sovereignty over Boucher's much publicized 'Tamil
Homeland' solution.

The Asian Tribune in its 21 November report titled US Deputy Secretary of
State Nicholas Burns Leads today's Sri Lanka Co-Chair session in Washington
opined "it is interesting to find out after Tuesday's session in Washington
whether it is a combination of all the sentiments expressed by senior
American policymakers, which can be a single package with contradictions, or
a mixer of a pol-mil package that may give an upper hand to Sri Lankan
authorities while giving the latter the latitude to come up with a package
to address the national question."

Nicholas Burns' explanation at the State Department press briefing was
clearly in favor of the second option, the opinion he had expressed in
contrast to Richard Boucher's 'homeland' solution, a solution that had been
rejected by an overwhelming majority of Sri Lankans in the past several
decades.

Following is the transcript of the explanation given by U.S. Under Secretary
of State for Political Affairs, the third ranking diplomat in the
department, to the question, based on Asian Tribune opinion, raised at the
press conference:

Question:: Sridhar from Press Trust of India. My question is to Mr. Burns.
Sir, there has been a lot of writing in the media that there is somehow two
different tracks of U.S. policy towards this conflict in Sri Lanka - . The
hard line espoused by Mr. Burns supposedly is for allowing military
offensives for the state of Sri Lanka - to preserve the territorial
integrity. And supposedly there is a softer line that is pushing for the
homeland, you know, of the Sri Lankan Tamils. Can you please clarify for the
record what it is that the U.S. is pushing there now in Sri Lanka - ?

Burns: Well, I'm very happy to set the record straight if you're confused or
if any of your colleagues are confused. The United States doesn't normally
have two policies towards one country; we normally follow one. And in the
case of Sri Lanka - , the Sri Lankan people and government are a good friend
to the United States. We support the government. We have a good relationship
with the government. We believe the government has a right to try to protect
the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the country. The government has
a right to protect the stability and security in the country. We meet often
with the government at the highest levels and consider the government to be
a friend to our country.

We also believe that the Tamil Tigers, the LTTE, is a terrorist group
responsible for massive bloodshed in the country and we hold the Tamil
Tigers responsible for much of what has gone wrong in the country. We are
not neutral in this respect. I'm talking about the United States Government
now. And therefore we hope very much that the people of Sri Lanka - will be
able to live in peace in the future.

Now, there are times when the government takes actions that we have to speak
out because of our opposition to those actions. There have been, as you
know, a number of incidents over the last few months that have given us a
great deal of concern about the use of military power against civilians and
against aid workers. And we have called on the government and in our direct
conversations with the government to establish a committee of inquiry -- the
government has done this -- and international observers to help find out the
truth of what happened and then to ask the government to hold those people
responsible. And we have been apprised by the government just in recent days
that they intend to do that.

So that would be a general sense of the United States policy towards Sri
Lanka - . But we share in this respect with our Co-Chairs partners an
abiding hope for peace and for an end to the conflict, and we hope to use
the combined influence of the European Union and Japan, Norway and the
United States, working with countries like India, to see if we can bring our
influence to bear to make some suggestions that might be helpful to the
government and helpful in bringing about a ceasefire and peace negotiations.
That is our immediate objective and that is the policy of my government.

The U.S. Under Secretary continued to explain:

Burns:: I'd just say on behalf of the United States that we have faith in
the government and faith in the President of Sri Lanka - . They do want to
make peace. And we are urging the government to choose peace. Now, I think
we've all been disturbed, certainly in my government we have been, by the
breakdown in the ceasefire. There's been a tremendous level of fighting and
bloodshed over the last few months.

So we ask the government to redouble its efforts. We ask the government to
seek a ceasefire from the point of view of the United States and I'm just
speaking here on behalf of my own government, not certainly on behalf of the
Co-Chairs, we see the LTTE as greatly responsible for the present conflict
and we are a fierce critic of their terrorist tactics and the fact that so
many people have been victimized by those terrorist tactics.

Asian Tribune in the recent past in its columns has addressed the policy
makers of the United States Department of State and has been in touch with
those who influence U.S. policies to get a clear idea as to where the U.S.
stood on Sri Lanka crisis because of contradictory views expressed by many
senior diplomats. Nicholas Burns' statement in Washington on November 21 was
the clearest and precise policy declared so far by the United States
government to help both Sri Lanka and the separatist Tamil Tigers where they
stand with the sole Super Power whose foot prints are all over the globe,
and undoubtedly in every deliberations of the Tokyo Donor Conference.