The Ceylon News

Washington, Feb 25: Sri Lankan Ambassador to the US Jaliya Wickramasuriya on Wednesday said Colombo is working towards a political solution to the present conflict in the country.

"President (Mahinda) Rajapaksa is working towards a political solution," the Ambassador said in a statement, a day after a Senate sub-committee hearing on Sri Lanka.

"He (Rajapaksa) has called upon all the Tamil political parties in the Parliament to begin planning for a post-conflict society. We realise that once terrorism has ended, the only way forward is to bring all the parties together," Wickramasuriya said.

Reaffirming the island nation's commitment to supporting all Sri Lankans, the Ambassador said, "It is the utmost priority of the President and the government to ensure the safety and security of all our civilians and to look after their welfare".

The official hearing record included a letter to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by Sri Lankan Minister of Foreign Affairs Rohitha Bogollagama which stated that in order to protect the remaining civilians, the Government of Sri Lanka has declared a zero civilian casualty policy for the military.

The letter also said the government has already declared a safe area for the protection of civilians but the LTTE has infiltrated the area and resorted to firing shots into it while taking cover behind innocent civilians.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the UN are also helping in evacuating the injured and attending to their medical needs, the letter said adding, the government continued to send food and other essential items even to the uncleared areas, with the assistance of the ICRC.

The Ambassador said "We are grateful to the US Senate for holding the hearing today and we appreciate the government's continued understanding of our mutual fight against global terrorism".

"Although there are challenges remaining in Sri Lanka, we are strongly committed to democracy and promoting peace in our country," he said.

He added that most of the Tamil population in Sri Lanka lived freely in peace and harmony with Sinhalese, Muslims and other communities across the country with equal representation of the three main ethnic groups in Colombo.

This conflict is not one of ethnicity, rather it is a struggle to rid Sri Lanka of a globally recognised terrorist organization- the LTTE- that has a history of oppressing portions of our society and endangering the lives of all the citizens, he said.