By Taylor Dibbert
As Washington continues to embrace Sri Lanka’s new government, it’s important to remember that America’s next president is unlikely to shake up ties.
Sri Lanka’s President, Maithripala Sirisena, will soon complete his first year in office and many promises remain unfulfilled. More recently, we’re now hearing talk about the creation of a special court to handle alleged wartime abuses and the drafting of a new constitution.
Would expecting genuine progress on either of the aforementioned fronts be realistic? After all, there remain other, less complicated aspects of reform that the Sirisena administration has yet to address, such as the matter of Tamil political prisoners. Given Colombo’s unwillingness to address some of the more straightforward matters, is it reasonable to believe that more complex changes are viable at this time?
Regrettably, the United States continues to make platitudinous remarks about further reform, accountability and reconciliation in Sri Lanka. It’s time to think about Washington’s remarks in a different way. Is the Obama administration willing to do anything substantial if Sirisena’s reform agenda continues to flounder? Has the United States already decided that the progress thus far is sufficient? If that decision hasn’t already been made, what actions could Obama’s team conceivably take over the next 12 months to further pressure Colombo?
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