DEVELOPMENT BULLETIN-SRI LANKA: More Aid Than Expected For War- Torn State

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Angeline Oyog

PARIS, May 30 1998 (IPS) - Donors offered Sri Lanka 780 million dollars in aid pledges Wednesday — new funds for development assistance to sustain its economic reform efforts and rehabilitation projects in the war-affected areas.

At the end of a two-day meeting here with donors at the European offices of the World Bank, Sri Lanka received 80 million dollars more than what it had expected to get before leaving for Paris for the negotiations.

And Colombo officials were told that more assistance will be made available for reconstruction in the north and eastern regions of Sri Lanka in the event of peace.

G.L. Peiris, Sri Lanka’s Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs and Deputy Minister of Finance and Planning, said he was “extremely happy with the outcome”.

The total pledges, he added, was, for his government, “an indication of overwhelming confidence in Sri Lanka’s management of its economy and in what was achieved in 1997 and the good prospects for 1998”.

The results of the meeting with donors in Paris was particularly satisfying for the Sri Lankan delegation. Aware of the steep decline in global official development assistance, they had been advised to expect no more than 700 million dollars upon leaving Colombo, not the 780 actually offered.

Countries like Japan, Sri Lanka’s most generous aid disburser, have cut aid flows by 10 percent, and also rechanneled it to help its neighbours in East Asia, who desperately need the emergency monetary support.

According to Peiris, the donors were “enthusiastc” about the results of economic reforms including the decrease in the budget deficit, the growth of its gross domestic product the GDP by six per cent and its credit surplus.

Country reports prepared by the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Asian Development Bank showed a confidence in the government’s handling of the economy, proven by the significant increase in productivity and growth, he said.

Economic growth levels have climbed despite intense fighting in the disputed north and east of the island. Last year, the growth rate was 6.4 percent — higher than most of its ‘tiger’ neighbours in Asia — up from 3.8 percent in 1996 when the war and a series of crippling public sector strikes curbed growth.

Sri Lankan economic planners have been praised by the World Bank and IMF for a judicious mix of policies that have curbed government spending, raked in high revenue from the sale of state firms and kept the budget deficit in check.

In Paris Wednesday the donors added more words of praise for thegovernment of president Chandrika Kumaratunga for improving macroeconomic stability.

But they pointed out that additional structural reforms were needed. They stressed that good governance was important if the country wished to attract private investment.

The donors were concerned that Sri Lanka’s gains in human resource development were in jeopardy and welcomed the ongoing efforts to address issues in health and education.

They also expressed concern that prospects were not more encouraging for a prompt end to the conflict with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

The delegates had commended the government for its efforts to devolve authority to the regions as part of a peaceful solution to the 15 year old conflict and with the help of development partners, to improv the lives of people in the areas affected by t he war.

But they deplored the enormous toll of the war in human lives and foregone economic development and urged all parties in Sri Lanka to put the future of their country above politics and called on all of the country’s political leaders to unite for peace a nd prosperity.

In its 1997 annual report, the human rights organisation Amnesty International called attention to the human rights violations committed by both sides as they went on with the war.

Thousands of Tamil civilians were arrested during military operations by government forces all over the islands. Many of them were prisoners of opinion and some 1,600 were detained without charges or trial, including 600 who have been detained for over a year.

The torture of prisoners was prevalent and Amnesty had received numerous reports of detainees dying in prison. People arrested by military forces in the north and in the east of the country, the base of the conflict, were particularly vulnerable.

Armed Tamil groups cooperating with security forces were also responsible for human rights violations, particularly the disappearances of persons.

At least 220 Tamil civilians have disappeared and some 50 others summarily executed. Some 24 persons, including 13 women and seven chldren under the age of 12 were killed in this way in February by soldiers assisted by members of paramilitary groups. Th is massacre was reportedly in retaliation for the murder of two soldiers by the LTTE some hours earlier.

The LTTE fighters were also guilty of human rights violations, including deliberate and arbitrary killings of Sinhalese or Muslim civilians. According to Amnesty, the group did not hesitate to torture or mistreat their prisoners, including children whom they then forced to join the armed group.

Although Amnesty acknowledged that the government had taken a number of measures to guarantee the respect of human rights, the organisation said it remained very preoccupied by the recurrence of human rights violations and by the failure of the governmen t to bring to justice the persons committing these violations.