U.S. Assistant Secretary of State to visit Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 April 2005, 13:27 GMT]
"U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christina B. Rocca will visit Sri Lanka next Tuesday and Wednesday, April 19 and 20, to survey United States-funded tsunami reconstruction efforts and meet with Sri Lankan government officials," a press release issued by the United States Embassy in Colombo Friday said.

Full text of the press release follows:

U.S. ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE TO VISIT SRI LANKA, DONATE TOOLS TO TSUNAMI-AFFECTED TRADESMEN

Colombo, April 15, 2005. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christina B. Rocca will visit Sri Lanka next Tuesday and Wednesday, April 19 and 20, to survey United States-funded tsunami reconstruction efforts and meet with Sri Lankan government officials. Assistant Secretary Rocca heads the U.S. State Department's Bureau of South Asian Affairs, which includes Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. She is scheduled to meet with President Chandrika Kumaratunga on Wednesday, April 20.

Ms. Rocca will travel to the eastern coast Tuesday to see tsunami reconstruction efforts funded through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). In Kalmunai, she will meet representatives from GOAL, an NGO working with USAID's Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) to build transitional shelters, sponsor clean up operations, and reinforce local agriculture. She will also visit cash-for-work reconstruction sites, where she will present tool kits to tsunami-affected carpenters, masons and welders repairing schools through USAID's Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI).

During her visit to Sri Lanka Assistant Secretary Rocca is also scheduled to meet Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse and Opposition Leader Ranil Wikremesinghe. Ms. Rocca became Assistant Secretary for South Asian Affairs in 2001. This will be her 4th visit to Sri Lanka as Assistant Secretary.