COLOMBO: The United States has praised Sri Lanka’s new government for speeding up efforts toward reconciliation with ethnic minority Tamils after a separatist civil war which lasted nearly three decades and killed tens of thousands of people.

Steps such as the return of land, efforts to find the missing and the lifting of bans on Tamil groups will help heal wounds that linger six years after conflict ended, said Samantha Power, US Permanent Representative to the United Nations.

“A lot has been done in a short period of time,” Power told the Thomson Reuters Foundation on Monday on the sidelines of a youth conference during a visit to the Indian Ocean island.

“The government has laid down a list of commitments and ... (is) making their way through those commitments, in terms of giving back lands, in terms of Prevention of Terrorism Act, in terms of missing people, implementation of the accountability mechanism.”

Since President Maithripala Sirisena was elected in January, he has tried to mend relations with the United States and other Western nations, strained under his predecessor Mahinda Rajapaksa who was criticized for not doing enough to promote reconciliation between Tamils and the majority Sinhalese.

Indian Ocean power plays ‘threaten trade route’

Sri Lanka said that power plays in the Indian Ocean by competing countries could threaten the free movement along the crucial maritime trading route.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe — speaking at a maritime security conference attended by representatives of 35 countries including the United States, China and India — said that there needs to be a multilateral agreement and new security arrangements to ensure free and safe passage through the Indian Ocean. “The Indian Ocean is in need of a mutually benefiting security architecture established on a multilateral basis,” the prime minister said at the two-day conference hosted by Sri Lanka’s defense authorities. “There is also space for an effective multilateral governing structure.”

Wickremesinghe said that Sri Lanka would be willing to take the lead in establishing such an agreement, which would see the island nation act as broker between key players China, India and the US.

The prime minister made direct reference to China’s interest in building ports in Sri Lanka and elsewhere in south Asia, which has “raised concerns of a possible Chinese long-term plan to extend its sea power to the Indian Ocean.”

“Likewise, it is believed that there are concerns raised by the Chinese about a US–Indian strategic vision for Asia Pacific and the Indian Ocean region,” the premier said.