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Message: <blockquote data-quote="lkdood" data-source="post: 7943935" data-attributes="member: 92282"><img src="http://www.state.gov/img/09/32697/blake_offical_120_1.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs  Robert Blake says Sri Lanka needs to take more steps to encourage  greater reconciliation and greater democracy and also noted the need for  improvements in media freedom.    Blake noted that achieving reconciliation will be a key element in  peace and one part of achieving reconciliation will be to finish  resettling all internally displaced personas as soon as possible.         “Another key part of reconciliation is to ensure accountability for  past wrongs. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had recently told  External Affairs minister G.L Peiris that Sri Lanka’s Lessons learnt and  reconciliation commission holds promise and we hope and expect it will  fulfill that promise. A last pillar of reconciliation will be to advance  democracy and human rights. Minister Peiris affirmed during his visit  to Washington that Sri Lanka wants to review and strengthen its  institutions of democracy,” he said      Blake added that progress in implementing greater power  sharing with the provinces, implementing the 17th amendment to empower  independent commissions such as the human rights, police and bribery  commissions and efforts to safeguard media freedom will all be important  steps in ensuring an important step of peace and prosperity for all Sri  Lankans.    The US official, who met President Mahinda Rajapaksa during his visit  to Sri Lanka today, said that the President understands the need for  power sharing and wants to go forward.          Blake also said that there is some misunderstanding on the role of the  UN panel appointed by UN secretary General Ban ki-moon to advice the UN  Chief on Sri Lanka. Blake was of the view that the UN Secretary General  appointed the panel to advice him about what might be done to help the  Commission in Sri Lanka.          “The US believes the UN panel can play an important advisory role with  Sri Lanka’s commission. The panel is only an advisory panel and does not  have an investigative role. It can benefit Sri Lanka’s commission,” he  said.     On the US decision to review GSP trade benefits for Sri Lanka Blake  said that it is important to make a distinction on the US GSP process  and the EU GSP plus process saying that while the US had initiated a  process to look at human rights in Sri Lanka GSP will remain for Sri  Lanka during the process.<a href="http://www.dailymirror.lk/index.php/news/5249-more-to-do-says-us.html" target="_blank">Dailymirror</a></blockquote>

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