COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s landmark pact to share $3 billion in tsunami aid with Tamil Tiger rebels may help breathe life into the island’s stalled peace process, but age-old political bickering could squander a golden opportunity. The long-elusive aid-sharing deal agreed on Friday has been heralded by the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as a stepping stone towards resuming peace talks that broke down two years ago.

But President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s Marxist ally defected from her ruling coalition over the aid deal, leaving the government a hamstrung minority in parliament, and analysts say a snap general election could be on the cards in months.

Compounding matters, Sri Lanka’s Muslims feel under-represented and the island’s main Muslim political party is boycotting the pact, while the Marxist People’s Liberation Front (JVP) has vowed potentially destabilising mass protests.

“(The pact) is the most significant move forward in the peace process since the signing of the ceasefire agreement (in 2002),” said Jehan Perera, director of non-partisan peace advisory group the National Peace Council.

“But there are big hurdles to overcome,” he added. “What could actually derail (the pact) is Muslim agitation... The other problem is we seem to be heading towards general elections.”

Aid-sharing should help build confidence between the state and the Tigers, whose war for self-rule killed more than 64,000 people until the 2002 ceasefire, ravaged swathes of the island and choked the $20 billion economy by scaring off foreign investment.

S.P. Thamilselvan, head of the rebels’ political wing, told Reuters in a recent interview that sincere implementation of the aid pact could help reopen peace talks — which would delight international donors exasperated by a two-year deadlock.

The US government feels the same.

“We hope the experience the two sides will gain by working together will help to build confidence and lead to progress in the broader peace process,” US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in a statement issued in Colombo on Monday.—Reuters