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.
More than any other community, the Tamil people of the north and east have reason to dread the return of the war which had broken up their homes and flattened their houses. Nearly every person who lives in Jaffna has a horror to tell. Take the case of P Selvarajah, who is President of the Guardian Association of Arrested and Disappeared Persons in the North. He lost his son when the army took him in for questioning, and his desperate desire in his old age is to find a job for his daughter. Mr. Selvarajah wants peace.
While they do not wish the LTTE to return to war, many in Jaffna believe it is the LTTE´s effort to keep up its military strength that is the mainstay of Tamil bargaining strength. Where democratic leaders of the calibre of SJV Chelvanayakam, founder of the Federal Party could not succeed, the militant leadership of Velupillai Prabhakaran has succeeded in forcing the Colombo government to take the Tamil negotiating position seriously. There is no doubt that the LTTE is using the period of the ceasefire to continue to strengthen itself politically and militarily. But there is no apprehension in Jaffna that the military build up at this time is for the purpose of launching a new war.