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Lanka peace may hinge on tsunami cleanup

by Simon Gardner

It took a devastating tsunami to finally give the Sri Lankan government and its Tamil Tiger foes a common goal after two decades of bloody civil war - and now the clean-up may hold the key to elusive lasting peace.

Constant bickering between the two sides reached fever pitch in the run-up to Sri Lanka's worst natural disaster, the rebels threatening to end a three-year truce and resume a war that has already killed 64,000 people and choked the nation's economy.

But the calamity that killed more than 38,000 people across the Indian Ocean island on December 26 has given Norwegian mediators a window of opportunity to draw both sides together at a new round of talks this weekend.

Norwegian peace mediators say talks with reclusive rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran on Saturday will focus on tsunami reconstruction, and not the long-stalled peace talks and rebel demands for self-rule.

But the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) will also use tomorrow's meeting with Norwegian Foreign Minister Jan Petersen and peace envoy Erik Solheim to urge confidence-building measures and seek guarantees they will get a share of pledged donor aid. (Reuters)

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