Sri Lanka's bid for peace

With the recent suicide attack on Lankan army headquarters, any chance of the peace talks between the government and the LTTE resuming has vanished.

The ceasefire agreement between the government and the LTTE came into force on February 23, 2002.

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The pact consists of three components:

• A ceasefire agreement, including measures to regulate the military situation on land and at sea.

• Confidence building measures to improve living conditions for local populations

• An international monitoring mission.

Norway heads the international observer mission that monitors the ceasefire (The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission). It consists of observers from Nordic countries.

Between September 2003 and March 2003, six rounds of talks were held, but they were stalled after Tigers alleged that not enough was being done to rebuild war hit Tamil areas.

Tigers pulled out after six rounds of talks, saying not enough being done to rebuild war-hit Tamil areas and they are being sidelined.

After Mahinda Rajapaksa took over as the President of Sri Lanka in 2005, both the parties declared their respect for the 2002 ceasefire at mediated peace talks in Geneva.

The second round of Geneva talks were supposed to take place in April, but LTTE thwarted the talks on the issue of the transportation of its senior cadres from one sector to another for consultations ahead of the peace talks.

Now, with the recent suicide attack on Lankan army headquarters, any chance of the peace talks between the government and the LTTE resuming has vanished, according to political observers.

The process, already stalled by differences between the government and the LTTE, is unlikely to be resumed in the near future.

The LTTE and the government have also been bitterly complaining about the killing of a large number of people since February.