North and south

There have been apprehensions in Colombo and the rest of the south of Sri Lanka that the peace process, being stuck these past three months, may not last much longer. Incidents such as the destruction of LTTE ships by the navy, the organisation's own refusal to attend the Tokyo donor conference, and now its defiance of a directive by the international monitors of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission to dismantle their newly established military camp in government-controlled territory – these loom large in the minds of many Sinhalese and also among the international community. The campaign carried out by a section of the opposition against the ceasefire agreement also add to these apprehensions in the south.

But in the north of the country, neither in the LTTE-controlled Wanni nor in government-controlled Jaffna, are there similar apprehensions about an imminent or impending return to war. Prices of land in Jaffna have registered sharp increases compared to what they were two years ago, going up five to ten times in some locations, due to increased demand by expatriate Tamils who wish to provide for their families remaining in Jaffna, and also due to the arrival of international NGOs. Along the A-9 highway that connects north and south, new construction is on. People are returning to their homes and rebuilding them, investing in their futures. These are significant indexes to prospective peace.