In a radio interview with Grant Reeher, the host of the Campbell Conversations program at Syracuse University in New York recently, Robert O. Blake, Assistant Secretary of State for Central and South Asian Affairs said his tenure in Sri Lanka was a 'searing time' for him as the country went from peace negotiations with the terrorist organization to a full blown war against them.
He said the most did not believe that LTTE could be militarily defeated but Sri Lanka proved them wrong although at a high human cost.
"Most of us believed it couldn't be done, but they disproved a lot of the skeptics. But they did so at a very high cost," he has said.
"It points now to the need for very serious reconciliation and accountability efforts to take place so that the country can be unified and it can again I think realize the promise that Sri Lanka has always had," Blake has noted.
Discussing a recent article in the New Yorker that said Sri Lanka's military strategy is being accepted by some governments as a model to eradicate terrorism Blake said first thing to recognize is that LTTE bore a large part of the responsibility for the civilian toll of Sri Lanka's war.
The former Ambassador said despite the calls to protect civilians, the LTTE, systematically refused international efforts to allow the displaced people trapped between the advancing security forces and the LTTE to move from the conflict areas to the south and violated international law by not allowing freedom of movement to those civilians.
"So had the LTTE actually allowed people to move south, none of this would have happened in the first place, so it's important to make that point," he said adding that point often gets lost in the debate on the matter.
Assistant Secretary Blake accused the LTTE of deliberately placing heavy artillery in the midst of civilian camps to draw fire from the government forces hoping that the civilian deaths would make the international community to direct its anger against the government and demand to stop the offensive.
He said the West was in a difficult situation as they wanted to see the defeat of the terrorist organization but not at the cost of civilians.
Blake said both sides were guilty of massive human rights violations that caused the deaths of many civilians.
He said for Sri Lanka to recover from this experience there needs to be a reconciliation process and an accountability mechanism so that the nation can put this episode behind them and be confident that those who were responsible for the civilian deaths will be held accountable. He also called for Sri Lanka to hold elections in the North so that a 'new indigenous leadership' can emerge.
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