Japan to monitor Lanka before giving aid

By Rathindra Kuruwita
The Japanese Government yesterday warned that it will closely monitor the situation in Sri Lanka to determine whether development aid should be curtailed to the island nation.

Japan’s Special Peace Envoy Yasushi Akashi, ending his 15th official visit to Sri Lanka, however, assured that Japanese aid will not be suspended at the present juncture.

“There was wild speculation on the possible suspension of Japanese development aid, but we do not want to impose our will on Sri Lanka by using development aid as a weapon.

The Japanese Government looks at various factors before determining whether aid should be given and war is only one aspect among them,” Akashi said.

“But, we will monitor the situation Sri Lanka and decide what to do in the future,” he added.

Nevertheless, the Japanese Government is concerned about the Sri Lanka Government’s decision to annul the Ceasefire Agreement, because it believes that this decision may lead to an increased level of violence and greater civilian casualties. The Japanese Peace Envoy added that he has urged the Sri Lanka Government to put forward a political solution in the near future.

“I came to convey Japan’s grave concern to the Government of Sri Lanka, and urge strongly the need to solve the problem through negotiation. The termination of the CFA may prompt the pursuit of a military solution to the conflict, with dire humanitarian consequences,” Akashi said.

He added that he had met prominent political personalities in his present visit and tried to rectify many misunderstandings they had on the Japanese involvement.

“I met representatives from parties such as the JVP, to understand what they do not like about our involvement. Because we know that Japan has no monopoly on wisdom and truth and we maybe able to learn from people who do not agree with us,” he said.

Commenting on the All Party Representative Committee (APRC) proposals Akashi said that he believed that the final proposals might go beyond the provisions of the 13th Amendment.

“The APRC is fine tuning their proposals and I believe their final draft will go beyond the restraints of the 13th Amendment,” he said.