International donors ended aid talks with Sri Lanka Tuesday with a warning to the war-battered and tsunami-hit nation to show progress in its faltering peace bid or risk losing three billion dollars (17,2 milliarder DKR), report the World Bank press review Wednesday.
Finance Minister Sarath Amunugama said foreign donors and multilateral lenders had a clear message to the island nation to pursue its peace process if it wanted foreign help for economic development.
– Unless we go on the path of negotiations, many of these pledges and funding will not materialize, Amunugama said at the end of the two-day aid review. He said total aid now available to Sri Lanka for tsunami reconstruction was three billion dollars over a period of three to five years. It included 300 million dollar in debt relief and another 250 million dollars to prop up foreign exchange reserves.
The World Banks Vice President for South Asia, Praful Patel, said lenders were not imposing conditions on Sri Lanka, but believed it was important for Colombo to enter into a tsunami aid-sharing deal with Tiger rebels.
He said donors were also keen that Sri Lankas (Ceylons) faltering peace process be revived and noted that despite a talks deadlock, both sides had abided by a truce since February 2002.
– For many development partners, the peace process is at the core of their interest in Sri Lanka, Patel said, adding international lenders were also backing the initiative as it was the only way to ensure economic development.
Patel said his talks with President Chandrika Kumaratunga Tuesday convinced him she had a “cast iron commitment” to enter into a deal with the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam on aid-sharing.
The aid review was not meant as a pledging conference. But Amunugama said donors and non-governmental agencies raised their aid offers at the meeting in the hill resort of Kandy. Diplomatic sources, however, said there were no new pledges but a “rounding off” of numbers.
The three-billion-dollar figure which Amunugama cited on Tuesday was a further increase from the up to 2,5 billion which he said on Monday had been promised for tsunami aid. Diplomats said donors were generously offering help in the hope of boosting the islands faltering peace process and strengthening the fragile ceasefire.
Sri Lanka originally had estimated that 2 billion dollar (11,4 milliarder DKR) would be required for reconstruction following the Dec. 26 tsunami that killed more than 31.000 people in the country and affected 1 million others.
But China, Japan and the International Monetary Fund announced more grants at the meeting and Japan and India pledged debt moratoriums, bringing the number to nearly 3 billion dollar, officials said.
The World Banks Patel issued a note of caution: – International donors cannot be taken for granted. We want to see that the money will be spent equitably to all the people affected by the tsunami, he said, referring to tsunami-affected areas under the control of Tamil Tiger rebels. Residents in Tamil-majority areas controlled by the Tigers have complained that aid has been slow to reach them.
International donors have also been reluctant to give any funds directly to the guerrillas, listed as terrorists by the United States and India, but most are willing to give it to a joint body comprised of representatives of both the government and the rebels.
Meanwhile, sources report that Sri Lanka is on the verge of agreeing a long-elusive tsunami aid pact with Tamil Tiger rebels. Jayantha Dhanapala, head of the governments Peace Secretariat, told donors the deal would be sealed after a few more meetings, which officials said could mean within days.
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
