This is not the time to crack down on citizens and not a way to win confidence – U.S. Ambassador
Julie J. Chung – U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka
U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka Julie Chung said she met with Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe to express her grave concern over the unnecessary and deeply troubling escalation of violence against protesters overnight.
She said the President and the cabinet have an opportunity and an obligation to respond to the calls of Sri Lankans for a better future.
“We believe that the new president and his government must earn the confidence of its people, the Sri Lankan people and the international community by really adhering to democracy and human rights and governance and this is not the way to show that confidence,” said Julie J. Chung, the US Ambassador.
She urged the government to respect the rights of all and release those who have been detained and to make sure that those injured are attended to.
“This is not the time to crack down on citizens, but instead to look ahead at the immediate and tangible steps the Government can take to regain the trust of the people, restore stability, and rebuild the economy,” she tweeted.
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Of course. Then we can walk down the same path Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya took to prosperity and democracy.
Oh, the Viceroy for Sri Lanka has spoken!
Re. “This is not the time to crack down on citizens…,” Dear Your Highness Viceroy, may I humbly submit to you that there is a huge difference between “citizens” and violent anarchists, arsonists, looters, assaulters, murderers and it is incumbent upon any democracy to deal with them accordingly for the good of its citizens.
Dear Ambassador Julie Chung, of course all citizens have a right to peacefully protest, but have you overlooked the fact that this so called aragalaya ‘protesters’ SL countrywide have now committed assaults, burning of public and private property, looting, battering and killing of scores of who they considered ‘govt members/supporters’ and I ask of you are these not the characteristics of radical, extremist movements out to destroy democracies? While your country peaches the value of democracy and democratic institutions, especially when it comes to dispute resolution, you country is also the first to criticize and blame struggling nations who are out to protect those very institutions/values from extremists and radicals by use of force as an ultimate means. Here, I regret to say, it is a known fact that it is your kind of mindless, shallow, hypocritical interference that pushes economically struggling poorer countries, even if they are democracies, into the arms of other major world powers such as China and Russia as those countries tend to take a more reserved, a calculated stance before jumping in at whim and hypocritically interfering in other nations’ internal affairs.
I just wonder, and regret I am unable to ask this woman face to face before the world media, whether it will be possible for people to behave the same way and be allowed do the all those things they did in her country, what she and the other hypocrites refer to as ‘peaceful struggle’.
Law & order must maintained by forces. This is an internal matter Dear Ambassador no foreigners involved. We have only one President Secretariat. & Prime minister office & one Parliament. If White house surrounded by protesters what action USA military take.? We are still a sovereign country.Pl answer.