Sri Lanka, 2008

Sri

Lanka congratulates the President on his election to

this high office. We are confident that your guidance

will enable the General Assembly to make progress on

the important issues confronting humanity to make the

work and role of the United Nations more relevant to

the lives of billions of people.

While my mother tongue is Sinhala, let me

elaborate a few thoughts in Tamil. Sinhala and Tamil

are the two languages of the people of Sri Lanka. Both

have been used through the centuries, are rich in

literature and are widely used in my country, with

recognition as official languages. With the widening of

democracy in our country, the bonds between the

Sinhala and Tamil people of Sri Lanka will grow

stronger and remain a major force for its future

development. We will march towards a richer freedom

and the lasting unity that await us as a nation.

The theme of our debate — “The impact of the

global food crisis on poverty and hunger in the world

as well as the need to democratize the United

Nations” — is indeed far-sighted. It focuses on one of

the critical survival needs of humanity, as well as one

of the key institutional needs of the world body. The

global food crisis has become a frightening actuality

and has the potential to assume even more dangerous

proportions if we fail to take urgent and collective

action. Similarly, a less democratic United Nations

runs the risk of being less effective and less credible,

while giving rise to major concerns about its

legitimacy.

Through a series of projects with regional impact,

Sri Lanka will contribute to the goal of increasing food

production, investing more in agriculture and research

and sharing technologies and best practices. That is an

integral part of the rural empowerment that is so

essential in the developing world, as the vast majority

of our people are rural based and depend on agriculture

for their livelihoods. Achieving food security would

require strengthening and revitalizing the agriculture

sector. That calls for the empowerment of small- and

medium-scale farmers through a series of measures.

Those represent vital collective steps by all of us in the

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United Nations system. Sri Lanka sees self-sufficiency

as the answer to overcoming the food crisis and giving

strength to nations. No longer can we expect farmers in

developing countries to be mainly producers for export

markets.

In that context, implementation of effective social

safety nets remains a priority as reassurance and

empowerment. That is why we have introduced social

security measures such as the fertilizer and fisheries

subsidies. The advice given by some powerful

countries and powerful institutions are contrary to that.

Yet it is necessary that we pay no heed to such advice

and determine to do what is best for the innocent

people of our countries.

As the current Chair of the South Asian

Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), I

have the honour to state that at the recent summit we

affirmed our resolve as a region to make our own

contribution to grapple with the food crisis and to make

our region revive its historic critical role in food

production by once again becoming a major granary of

the world. We also decided on the immediate

establishment and operationalization of the SAARC

Food Bank. That mechanism, we believe, will help

considerably to ensure both food and nutritional

security for the people of South Asia. That initiative

will contribute to the larger global efforts that we

launched in Rome, in June this year, to avert and

mitigate the impact of the food crisis.

We must also find solutions to the energy crisis

that are both equitable and pragmatic. Energy supplies

must be diversified by developing advanced, cleaner,

more efficient and cost-effective technologies for both

fossil fuels and renewable energy sources. We need to

engage in energy conservation and accept the reality of

dependence on fossil fuels for much longer.

Equally obvious is the imperative of transferring

new technology to the developing countries. In our

own region, we will use increasing resources of human

and scientific talent to produce our own technologies,

making the best use of the natural resources, the sun,

wind and the ocean, which we have in abundance, free

of the restrictions of the marketplace. The demands of

humanity can no longer be allowed to be at the mercy

of speculative or captive markets.

To that end, Sri Lanka’s own view is that the

United Nations and its agencies must take leadership in

developing a framework for international cooperation.

We urge caution in the rush to use biofuels to break our

dependence of fossil fuels. It has already been seen that

the rush to biofuels has contributed to high food prices.

Sri Lanka’s policy is that no arable land should be

diverted or directed to the production of biofuels,

however profitable that may be in the short term. It was

propitious that Sri Lanka acted with courage and

foresight over the last three years, without being cowed

by many pressures, and thus did not confront any

situation where our people had to face hunger or

starvation.

On climate change, SAARC leaders reiterated the

need to redouble efforts within an expanded regional

framework for environmental protection, conservation

and justice. We stressed that we should contribute to

restoring harmony with nature, a part of the heritage of

South Asia. We humans have interfered with nature too

much for too long. We must accept that the dangers of

climate change are man-made and that its solutions,

too, require man’s intervention.

Since the promulgation of the Charter of the

United Nations to save succeeding generations from

the tragedy of war, at least the major threat of

intercontinental war seems to have receded. However,

the just struggle of the Palestinians for statehood

continues.

Today, the United Nations and its peoples are

confronted with the fast-spreading menace of

terrorism, which manifests itself in various forms in

Asia, Africa and Latin America. The United Nations

has a grave responsibility to save today’s and

succeeding generations from that new and continuing

menace. We have been talking for long enough; it is

time for clear action in that regard.

Like many other countries, Sri Lanka has not

been spared this global menace. Exploiting perceived

ethnic grievances that must and can be addressed

through political means, a well-organized terror group,

the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), engages

in blatant and brutal acts of terrorism, including suicide

bombings, to seek negotiating leverage, political

recognition and legitimacy.

I am saddened by the loss of life and destruction

caused by the recent terrorist attack in Pakistan.

Our Government has always been ready to

address the causes of these issues and effectively

implement political and constitutional solutions to

3 08-51749

meet the aspirations and respect the rights of all

communities. What the Government would not and

could not do is to let an illegal and armed terrorist

group, the LTTE, hold a fraction of our population, a

part of the Tamil community, hostage to such terror in

the northern part of Sri Lanka and deny those people

their democratic rights to dissent and free elections.

Through our past actions, we have proved it.

The Government has therefore declared its policy

of engaging in dialogue and discussion with the

democratic leadership of the Tamil community, a

people who have lived in harmony with other Sri

Lankans for centuries. Today, there are Tamil leaders

holding responsible ministerial posts in my

Government. A former Attorney-General of then

Ceylon, Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan, a beloved

Tamil politician, had this to say at a public meeting in

Colombo in September 1904: “I have been to many

countries in the world. But nowhere have I seen such a

friendly race as the Sinhalese, who also uphold high

moral values.” Such was the harmony between the

Tamils and the Sinhalese. But a malicious group has

turned all of this upside down.

All successive Governments of Sri Lanka have

endeavoured to resolve the problem for over 25 years,

including through Norwegian facilitation and

international co-chairs overseeing a so-called peace

process that was treated with contempt by the

terrorists. On each occasion that talks were held

seeking peace, the terrorists of the LTTE walked out on

the flimsiest of pretexts and reverted to terrorism of the

worst kind, indiscriminately targeting innocent

civilians.

Our Government will only be ready to talk to that

illegal armed group when it is ready to commit itself to

decommissioning its illicit weapons, dismantling its

military capability and returning to the democratic

fold. The Government has also made it clear that the

elected Government cannot and will not permit the

undermining of the territorial integrity of the sovereign

United Nations Member State of Sri Lanka and the

division of its territory. We are clear in this message.

The Government’s objective is to enable the

people to enjoy the benefits of democratic processes

and to speed development activities in those areas

where there is a heavy presence of terrorists. That

would be similar to the fast-tracking of economic

development taking place in the Eastern Province of

Sri Lanka, where former terrorists now serve as

democratically elected Provincial Councillors, and a

former child soldier conscripted by the LTTE is now

the elected Chief Minister, having abandoned terrorism

and embraced democracy.

Significantly, the restoration of democracy in the

East of Sri Lanka was achieved in less than one year of

it being freed from the clutches of terror.

Our Government has also sought and received the

cooperation of the United Nations, the International

Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and other

agencies to help us in providing humanitarian

assistance to internally displaced persons (IDPs) and

other affected civilians. The Secretary-General’s

Representative on IDPs, who visited Sri Lanka some

years ago, said:

“Sri Lanka presents the unusual situation of a

central Government providing relief aid to

persons under the control of the main opposition

group. In a world replete with examples of

Governments and rebel groups using food as a

weapon against civilian populations, the situation

in Sri Lanka is one that deserves closer attention

if not more publicity as an important precedent.”

(E/CN.4/1994/44/Add.1, para. 67)

The Government of Sri Lanka continues this

humanitarian policy even today, although we know that

the terrorists seize a good proportion of those

humanitarian supplies. Our supplies are not confined to

food; they extend to medicines and all other essentials

as well as schools and hospitals, with teachers, doctors,

nurses, and all other essential staff. That is not all; the

Government also purchases the paddy and other

foodstuffs produced in those areas. I do not think there

is any country in the world where there is a

Government that provides such humanitarian assistance

to terrorists that attack it. Our Government considers

the supply of humanitarian relief to its people as its

prime responsibility.

The complex situation in Sri Lanka needs to be

addressed and resolved through an appropriate process

of deterrent law-and-order action and patient political

efforts of consensus-building. We have achieved the

difficult but essential task of building peace in the

Eastern Province and are confident that it can be done

in the north as well.

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This session of the Assembly is a good time to

take stock of progress made towards the Millennium

Development Goals (MDGs) around the globe. It is

regrettable to note, as we do so, that most are behind

schedule. The slowing down of global economic

growth, financial turmoil and speculation, rising food

and fuel prices and the impacts of climate change are

clear obstacles. Also, sanctions imposed on the leaders

of some countries, and on their leadership, based on

their political role, following protests, are in fact,

targeted at the innocent people of those countries.

The steadily growing menace of international

terrorism, with related activities such as the smuggling

of illegal arms, human trafficking, drug trafficking,

money-laundering, and business empires run by

terrorist groups undoubtedly undermine the

fundamentals of humanity and civilization. It appears

that steps taken by us to eradicate such illegal activities

have not been effective. This further complicates all

national and international efforts at moving towards

realizing the MDGs. Terrorism, as I have emphasized

many a time, by its very nature, pushes back even our

modest achievements.

Another similar menace is threatening to devour

our children, the most valuable asset of any nation.

That is the insecurity of cyberspace which has not only

helped corrupt the minds of our children but also

exposes them to predators such as paedophiles, drug

dealers and pornographic sites. Sri Lanka has banned

pornographic and similar destructive sites from being

available through Internet service providers. We are

also controlling and restricting the use of mobile

telephones for such damaging activities. That is an

important area for world leaders to focus on.

It is important that urgent and collective actions,

both short- and long-term, are taken to stem those

adverse trends. Only such determined and concerted

actions will enable progress to be made towards the

realization of the agreed development goals, including

the MDGs, and frustrate elements that are bent on

reversing the gains made.

We must deeply commit ourselves as Members of

the United Nations to forging a way forward from the

limitations not seen by those who laid the foundations

for this great institution of humankind. If we fail to do

it now, future generations will curse us.

I wish to conclude my address with a verse from

the Dhammapada, words from the Enlightened One:

“Victory breeds hatred,

The defeated live in pain.

Happily the calmed live,

Having set victory and defeat aside.”