Cablegate: Sri Lanka to Proceed with Global Peace Operations

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DE RUEHLM #2067 3480954
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O 140954Z DEC 06
FM AMEMBASSY COLOMBO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 4920
INFO RUEHRL/AMEMBASSY BERLIN 0085
RUEHKA/AMEMBASSY DHAKA 9691
RUEHIL/AMEMBASSY ISLAMABAD 6627
RUEHKT/AMEMBASSY KATHMANDU 4687
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RUEHSM/AMEMBASSY STOCKHOLM 0494
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RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 1585
RHHMUNA/HQ USPACOM HONOLULU HI
RUEKDIA/DIA WASHDC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
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UNCLAS COLOMBO 002067

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

STATE FOR SCA/INS, SCA/RA (MILLER), PM/PPA (FEATHERSTONE),

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KPKO MARR PREL MASS KSEP CE
SUBJECT: SRI LANKA TO PROCEED WITH GLOBAL PEACE OPERATIONS
INITIATIVE

REF: A) STATE 169188 B) COLOMBO 1762

1. (SBU) Following up on ref B, Defense Attache passed
information to Defense Secretary Gothabaya Rajapaksa during a
previously scheduled meeting on November 3. DATT later
received a call back from Defense Ministry expressing
interest and asking for more information. Pol Chief received
a request for more details and called at Foreign Affairs
Ministry on December 12, after receipt of additional briefing
materials from PM and PACOM. Pol Chief discussed the of the
program with Director General C.A.H.M. Wijeratne (Bilateral
Affairs - West) and Deputy Director Yasoda Gunasekera
(UN/Multilateral Affairs) and gave them copies of draft
Letter of Request (LOR) and PM PowerPoint presentation.

2. (SBU) MFA interlocutors thanked us for the information.
Wijeratne asked us to confirm that joining the initiative did
not entail a commitment to deploy to any specific PKO. He
also pointed out that some Sri Lankan Army (SLA) specialized
forces (communications, engineering, logistics and medical)
were presently fully engaged in fighting Sri Lanka's
two-decade-old ethnic conflict with the LTTE (Tamil Tigers).
We indicated understanding for the current situation in the
country.

3. (SBU) Our Sri Lankan counterparts told us that their
government was highly interested in joining GPOI, and that
the initiative had the support of both MFA and MoD.
Wijeratne said the Government of Sri Lanka was not sure how
to respond formally, since they had until now only received
informal briefing materials. We proposed an exchange of
letters between Ambassador and Foreign Minister as an
expeditious way to take note of a mutual desire to proceed
with the partnership. Our MFA interlocutors agreed this
would be appropriate.

4. (SBU) Ambassador Blake sent a letter to Foreign Minister
Samaraweera on December 13 based on ref a and the GPOI fact
sheet provided by PM (copy e-mailed to SCA/INS). Post
anticipates receiving a reply from the Foreign Minister
within a few days. Pol section and Office of Defense
Cooperation (ODC) stand ready to facilitate visits by an
assessment team and to help implement activities under GPOI
within Sri Lanka, or elsewhere.
BLAKE

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