“Sri Lanka’s critics and supporters of the LTTE want to fall back on the past, because they do not have a future,” Ambassador Jaliya Wickramasuriya said. “Now the political solution is unfolding, and all Sri Lankans have something that they have not had in a long, long time: Hope.”

The Ambassador met with a group of Sri Lankan-Americans at the Consulate General’s office on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles.

The ambassador also interacted with a group of leading Tamil community representatives for one-on-one discussions about developments in Sri Lanka. Several of the Tamil community members recounted their positive impressions of post-conflict Sri Lanka.

He also briefed his guests on the recent economic and political developments in Sri Lanka and the efforts of the government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa to empower communities in Sri Lanka’s Northern and Eastern Provinces.

Mr. Wickramasuriya highlighted a wide array of improvements that have taken place in Sri Lanka since the Government’s May 2009 defeat of the LTTE.

“By far the most important investments we have made are in the North and East,” the ambassador said. “About $1 billion annually has been spent to modernize those regions. The improvements include new homes, hospitals, schools, roads, water systems, bridges, railroads and irrigation.

“We have returned nearly all of the 300,000 people who were displaced by the conflict to their homes, giving them aid to rebuild and take up their livelihoods. We have cleared over 500,000 LTTE landmines and that work continues today. Agriculture and fishing are growing. This adds a whole new sector to the national economy – GDP in the North was close to 21 percent in 2010.”

Other improvements, the ambassador, noted, include a national GDP of 8.2 percent in 2010, increasing exports and foreign investment, new port facilities, airport, roads and rail lines and a recent sovereign bond issue that was oversubscribed by seven times. US investors, he noted, led the way, buying more than 43 percent of the issue.

Several community members expressed an interest in starting businesses in Sri Lanka, and the ambassador encouraged them to go to Sri Lanka to set up small and medium-sized companies.

Amid those gains, the ambassador said, Sri Lanka also, “rehabilitated over 1,000 children who were stolen from their families by the LTTE and forced to carry weapons.

These child soldiers have been re-united with their families and are recovering from the psychological wounds of war. The government has granted amnesty to 11,600 LTTE militants, giving them job and education training. They have been released over time to civil society.

“How many countries in the world rehabilitate and release terrorists?” the ambassador asked. “Just one: Sri Lanka.”

Ambassador Wickramasuriya encouraged the audience, which included Tamil, Sinhalese and Muslim Sri Lankans, to “come together and speak with one voice,” when it comes to reconciliation efforts in Sri Lanka. He urged them as American voters to reach out to their members of Congress.