Weary of war, Sri Lankans look to talks for peace

Colombo, Oct 27: Wiping a tear from her eye, Sri Lankan housewife Sriya Gajasinghe says the best memorial to her dead soldier son would be a lasting peace in the country.

Her 22-year son, a junior army officer, was killed in fighting with Tamil Tiger guerrillas in 1998, one of the more than 65,000 people who have died in Sri Lanka's fratricidal civil war since 1983.

This weekend, government and Tamil Tiger teams will hold peace talks yet again in Geneva in a bid to end the fighting that pits rebel against soldier and minority Tamil against majority Sinhalese.

Millions in this tear-drop shaped nation will be keenly watching the progress of the talks, including Gajasinghe.

''We want peace in the country and an end to the killing of young men like my son,'' said Gajasinghe, sitting in her Colombo house near a wooden-framed photo of her dead son dressed smartly in formal uniform.

A 2002 ceasefire had largely ended the violence. But since July, clashes between the military and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which is fighting for an independent homeland for the country's minority Tamils, has killed 1,000 people, including scores of soldiers.

Analysts and officials say the best outcome that can be hoped for is a commitment to keep talking. A breakdown could plunge the country back into full-blown civil war.

For Gajasinghe, the conflict's end can't come soon enough.

''It is good they are talking. But even as they talk, our children are being killed because of war,'' she said, her eyes moist.

Far north in the government-controlled town of Jaffna, which has seen hostilities for over two decades, Selvaratnam Dharmarajah, a 68-old Tamil man, says he's seen too much hatred and bloodshed to expect progress in Geneva. ''For them, it is a matter of honour. For us, it is a battle of life and death,'' the retired mercantile store manager told Reuters as he waited for a bus in Jaffna to go to his village on the outskirts of the Tamil-dominated town.

ATTACKED, STABBED, DISPLACED AND STRANDED

He should know. In 1958, his house in Colombo was attacked by a majority Sinhalese mob and his brother assaulted.

He said Sri Lanka's communal hatred came to haunt him again in 1983 when he was stabbed during widespread anti-Tamil rioting following the killing of 13 soldiers by the LTTE in Jaffna.

''Nothing positive has been achieved so far because both parties do not have clear, honest hearts to come to an understanding and solve this eternal problem,'' said Dharmarajah, a bespectacled man with salt-and-pepper hair.

The retiree, who now lives in Colombo with his wife and married daughter, has been stuck for over four months in Jaffna.

He was visiting Jaffna when fighting flared in July, and cut off a key highway linking the north to the rest of the country.

He can't afford a flight back and is unable to get a place on a ship to Colombo as preference is given to officials, the ailing and students.

In the capital, where army checkpoints are common, some Sinhalese say they the war needs to end to protect the young.

''I don't want the war to continue right to the point when my two-year-old son grows up,'' said teacher Nisansala Dissanayake. ''I don't want him to take arms. We should end this.''

REUTERS

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