COLOMBO: A new tsunami is gathering force in Sri Lanka. A country which lost over 35,000 people in last year’s catastrophe is facing a disaster which could dwarf that death toll. Yet the looming threat has hardly been noticed by the outside world.

Among decision-makers in Sri Lanka’s Sinhalese and Tamil communities a wave of war preparations is rising up.

Every day brings new violations of a four-year-old ceasefire. Attacks on government troops have been mounting with lethal intensity. Forty-four have died in three separate incidents this month.

Although the peace negotiations which followed the ceasefire stalled in April 2003, by and large the truce held until a few weeks ago. Now the situation has worsened dramatically.

In Indonesia’s tsunami-stricken province of Aceh, last year’s calamity pushed pro-independence rebels and the government into peace. In Sri Lanka it also raised hopes that both sides would settle their differences.

Donor governments saw a chance to use the disaster to revive the peace process. They urged the Tigers and the Sri Lankan government to create a joint mechanism for distributing reconstruction aid. The idea was that by collaborating on practical issues, both sides would achieve mutual trust.

In May they signed an agreement on tsunami funding. But Sinhalese nationalists took it to the supreme court as unconstitutionally giving the Tigers excessive recognition. When the judges came down in the complainants’ favour, the mechanism died. What can be done? LTTE and government leaders must take a deep breath and realize the dangers they are about to unleash. Foreign governments ought to step in immediately.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service