May 23, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 87 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session

[Page H4149]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  IN RECOGNITION OF THE 10TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ENDING OF SRI LANKA'S 
                               CIVIL WAR

  (Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize the 10-
year anniversary of the end of Sri Lanka's decades-long civil war, a 
conflict that is estimated to have left over 100,000 people dead.
  Today, I wish I could also rise in celebration of a now-unified Sri 
Lanka, where war crimes for this bloody conflict had been accounted for 
and transitional justice had occurred; where land used by Sri Lanka's 
military had been fully returned to its citizens and the government was 
a true democracy, operating with transparency and representative of all 
its people, regardless of ethnicity or religious beliefs. However, 10 
years later, these essential rights have yet to be fully recognized.
  Mr. Speaker, while it is true that the Sirisena government has made 
some progress towards fulfilling its commitments at the U.N. Human 
Rights Council, I rise to urge the Sri Lankan Government to make 
meaningful progress on all fronts to restore democratic principles for 
all Sri Lankans and ensure the country can move forward as a unified, 
prosperous nation.

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