Sri Lanka's military victory over LTTE disproved skeptics but at a high cost, former US Ambassador says

Sri Lanka's decision to defeat the LTTE terrorists militarily disproved the skeptics who thought it could not be achieved but at a very high cost of civilian casualties, a former United States Ambassador to Colombo has said.

In a radio interview with Grant Reeher, the host of the Campbell Conversations program at Syracuse University in New York recently, Robert O. Blake, Assistant Secretary of State for Central and South Asian Affairs said his tenure in Sri Lanka was a 'searing time' for him as the country went from peace negotiations with the terrorist organization to a full blown war against them.

He said the most did not believe that LTTE could be militarily defeated but Sri Lanka proved them wrong although at a high human cost.

"Most of us believed it couldn't be done, but they disproved a lot of the skeptics. But they did so at a very high cost," he has said.

"It points now to the need for very serious reconciliation and accountability efforts to take place so that the country can be unified and it can again I think realize the promise that Sri Lanka has always had," Blake has noted.

Discussing a recent article in the New Yorker that said Sri Lanka's military strategy is being accepted by some governments as a model to eradicate terrorism Blake said first thing to recognize is that LTTE bore a large part of the responsibility for the civilian toll of Sri [...]