mr president the people of sri lanka sinhalese and particularly the tamils have suffered enormously over these past thirty years from a ruthless terrorist campaign conducted by the ltte
now that the ltte have been defeated in the field the government and people of sri lanka need our sympathetic understanding and above all our assistance as they try to set their country once more on the path of recovery and prosperity and prevent any resurgence of terrorism
there are those including ltte apologists who want to deliver a further blow to the sri lankan people by undermining the gsp preferential trade arrangements with the eu
i hope the commission understands that it is trade not aid that offers the best route to economic recovery
for its part the sri lankan authorities need to address the concerns expressed by friends in the international community so there is no excuse for gsp status to be compromised
the immediate priority of course is to resettle those thousands of tamil civilians caught up in the conflict and now being held in poor conditions in camps
their processing needs to take place with all urgency and the international community should be invited to help
