The island of Sri Lanka, known for its stunning and diverse nature, but also for its ethnic violence, is now facing the challenge of overcoming its bloody past and focusing on development and stability.
“In the 1950s and 60s Sri Lanka was hailed as a model developing country, with functioning democracy, working institutions and good economic growth”, says Alan Keenan, Senior Analyst and Sri Lanka Project Director for the International Crisis Group (ICG).
"Every few weeks UNRIC shines the spotlight on forgotten stories or themes that are on the UN's agenda."
Facts:
* http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-12000326
** http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr2011/download/en
*** http://www.un.lk/index.php
3 Questions to Edward Mortimer on Sri Lanka.
Edward Mortimer - interview for UNRIC "In Focus" on Sri Lanka
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The Human Rights Council and the High Commissioner for Human Rights are considering whether to launch an international investigation into reported war crimes in Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan Government, however, has expressed its dissatisfaction with outside interference, pending its own investigation.
Food security is becoming a growing concern in Sri Lanka´s war ravaged north where a majority of the inhabitants live on less than a dollar a day. At the same time only a quarter of a UN-Sri Lanka post-conflict reconstruction programme has been financed partly because the World Bank has classified Sri Lanka a middle income nation. Only 23% of the joint UN-Government of Sri Lanka-NGO reconstruction programme for the war ravaged northern provinces in Sri Lanka has been financed, says Subinay Nandy, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Sri Lanka. This means the fund is facing a US$200 million shortfall. Paradoxically, the World Bank reclassified Sri Lanka in late 2010 as a middle-income country and some analysts blame this for the funding shortfall.
By, Edward Mortimer,
A day in a village on the beautiful coast of northern Sri Lanka: a lady combing the hair of a small girl crouching at her feet. She leans over and whispers something to her husband who is sitting beside her holding on to two other children.
In 2000, the Sri Lankan government headed by President Kumaratunga and together with the Tamil Tigers (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) invited Norway to take the role of facilitator in the forthcoming peace process. A ceasefire between the Tigers and the Government was successfully established in 2002 and led the way for a Nordic civil observational delegation called the Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission (SLMM) with 20 officers from Norway and 10 from Iceland. The goal of the mission was that all ethnic groups would agree to a peaceful political solution to the violent conflict that the country had suffered for decades. This agreement was renewed in 2006 by incoming President Rajapakse, but in 2008 the Sri Lankan government terminated the deal and the SLMM delegation left the country.
