by Patricia A. Butenis
U.S. Ambassador to the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka and the Republic of Maldives
The United States has worked hard to assist the government and people of Sri Lanka to strengthen security, to further economic development, and to foster political reconciliation. Recently, we collaborated with the government of Sri Lanka to bring a delegation of business leaders here to increase trade between our two nations. Our development agency, USAID, has partnered with local companies to train people in the former conflict zones in new skills so they can re-establish their lives. Just last week, we handed over the first installment of a $1.5 million donation to the Sri Lankan Army’s Humanitarian Demining Unit. Since 2009, the U.S. government has contributed approximately $180 million to help Sri Lanka.
In the past few days, documents purportedly downloaded from U.S. Defense Department computers have become the subject of reports in the media. I cannot vouch for the authenticity of any one of these documents. But I can say that the United States would deeply regret the disclosure of any information that was intended to be confidential. And we condemn it.
Diplomats must engage in frank discussions with their colleagues, and they must be assured that these discussions will remain private. Honest dialogue—within governments and between them—is part of the basic bargain of international relations; we couldn’t maintain peace, security, and international stability without it.
People of good faith will recognize that diplomats’ internal reports do not represent a government’s official foreign policy. In the United States, they are one element out of many that shape our policies, which are ultimately set by the President and the Secretary of State. And those policies are a matter of public record, the subject of thousands of pages of speeches, statements, white papers, and other documents that the State Department makes freely available online and elsewhere.
But relations between governments aren’t the only concern. U.S. diplomats meet with local human rights workers, journalists, religious leaders, and others outside the government who offer their own candid insights. These conversations depend on trust and confidence as well. In some countries, if an anti-corruption activist shares information about official misconduct, or a social worker passes along documentation of sexual violence, revealing that person’s identity could have serious repercussions: imprisonment, torture, even death.
The owners of the WikiLeaks website claim to possess some 250,000 classified documents, many of which have been released to the media. Whatever their motives are in publishing these documents, it is clear that releasing them poses real risks to real people, and often to particular people who have dedicated their lives to protecting others. We support and are willing to have genuine debates about pressing questions of public policy. But releasing documents carelessly and without regard for the consequences is not the way to start such a debate.
For our part, the U.S. government is committed to maintaining the security of our diplomatic communications and is taking steps to make sure they are kept in confidence. We are moving aggressively to make sure this kind of breach does not happen again. And we will continue to work to strengthen our partnership with Sri Lanka and make progress on the issues that are important for our two countries. We can’t afford anything less. I am in close contact with the government of Sri Lanka to make sure we continue to focus on the issues and tasks at hand. President Obama, Secretary Clinton, and I remain committed to being trusted partners as we seek to build a better, more prosperous world for everyone.
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