KILINOCHCHI (Sri Lanka): While Sri Lankan officials and leaders of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) sit down to talk peace after 20 years of conflict, one highway could be the glue that holds a ceasefire together.

The announcement last Friday that talks were scheduled in Thailand starting in September was the first solid indication in months that the peace process — on the political front — was moving forward again.

With the removal of a trade embargo in LTTE-controlled areas, and the liberation of the A9 highway that links the rebel-held north to the government-controlled south, economic activity has thrived — reminding both sides how good life can be without war.

“I don’t think they (the government and the LTTE) can go back to war. People are getting used to the things they never had up there. And they don’t want to lose them again. It will be very hard for both sides to justify it,” said Arjun Dharmadasa, a Colombo businessman on his return from a trade fair in Jaffna.

But the lifting of the economic embargo by Prime Minister Ranil Wichremesinghe’s United National Party (UNP) drew scorn from hawkish elements in Sri Lanka’s parliament, wary of conceding anything to the rebels, including the ability to bolster arms through trade.

The embargo removal has proven prosperous for the LTTE.

At the Vavuniya checkpoint, 80 kilometres south of Kilinochchi, lorries entering rebel-held territory with goods for the northern Jaffna peninsula controlled by the government, are having to pay an average 12 per cent tax to the LTTE before they can proceed to Jaffna.

Tamil businessmen in Jaffna are then still taxed further with the result that a packet of lemon cream biscuits, which costs 38 rupees (40 US cents) in a Colombo supermarket, will sell upwards of 55 rupees in Jaffna town.

One Tamil businessman said the LTTE was raking in as much as 15 million rupees ($158,000) a day from the Vavuniya checkpoint on the A9, the main road to Jaffna.

However, the lifting of the embargo, which is allowing the free movement of non-military goods and people, could be the key to a lasting peace agreement.

In Kilinochchi, the current capital of the LTTE-controlled territory, there is no electricity or telephone communications. With the lifting of the embargo businesses that managed to survive the 12 years during which the A9 highway was closed, are seeing increased trade.

Albeit more expensive than in Colombo, an increasing number of business have been able to purchase fuel and generators to operate at night. Driving along the A9 through the centre of Kilinochchi there are visible signs of new businesses opening.

Buildings badly damaged are being repaired, while others are simply getting a fresh coat of paint. Even the Bank of Ceylon has opened a branch.

Going north to the government-controlled Jaffna peninsula, similar scenes can be witnessed. There are many Sri Lankan Army soldiers and checkpoints, but there is no longer a curfew.—dpa