With its strategic location and contributions to global peacekeeping, Sri Lanka "is poised to be a capable and willing partner to effectively combat violent extremism, trafficking and piracy," said Robert Blake, the assistant secretary of state for South Asia.
"But the government's worrying record on human rights, its weakening of democratic institutions and practices, and the way in which it conducted the final months of its conflict against the Tamil Tigers hamper our ability to fully engage," Blake told the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives.
"We continue to stress the importance of reconciliation and accountability for the future civility and prosperity of that country," Blake said.
Sri Lanka's relations with Western nations soured in 2009 when human rights groups accused the island's military of abuses as it dealt a death blow to the Tamil Tiger leadership, ending a nearly four-decade separatist insurgency.
The United Nations said that at least 7,000 c