ISLAMABAD, June 28: After being ravaged by the decades old ethnic violence, Sri Lanka finally looks all set to seek a peaceful co-existence with separatist Tamil Tigers.

While delivering a talk on Sri Lanka’s 19 years old ethnic conflict: A light at the end of the tunnel? A retired Sri Lankan Air Vice Marshall, Mr Gonnetilleke sounded hopeful about the Norwegian peace initiative, which will help bring harmony in the war-torn Sri Lanka. Institute of Strategic Studies (ISS) organized the event here on Friday.

Former foreign secretary Mr Agha Shahi said the talk would enlighten us about Sri Lankan strategy for seeking peace and expressed confidence in the seriousness of the peace proposal offered by the Norwegians to arrive at a settlement between the minority Tamils and the majority Singhalese.

Mr Gonnetilleke said problem began soon after independence but the issue came alive in 1983, when Tamil guerrillas launched a full-fledged insurgency campaign.

While dismissing that the LTTE movement was fighting for a separate homeland, he remarked: “What LTTE wants is not a complete break-away from mainland but a reasonable status of self-rule but resistance from Singhalese government lies at the very source of ethnic madness”.

He conceded that the LTTE was a powerful militant force to reckon with.

Suggesting a way forward which in his view means compromise and that if not resorted to may again put Sri Lanka back to square one.

Lashing out at the ethnic terror that cost the country $ one billion in one go, he referred to the couple of suicide bombings that rocked Sri Lanka, such as the blowing up of Colombo airport virtually into smithereens.

Reflecting on the current Norwegian efforts for peaceful solution, he said the LTTE’s demand of the government to lift the ban imposed on the organization was a major hurdle along with the issue of internal governance once self-rule was granted.

Expressing hope that there will be no war again in Sri Lanka, he said “LTTE did right to declare ceasefire, which was accepted by the government within 24 hours and fired not a single shot ever since the proposal was floated some five months back.

Agreeing that solution to Sri Lankan ethnic turmoil can only be made possible if peaceful political settlement is preferred over violent ways of settling the matter, he struck an optimistic note saying latest survey reveals 82 per cent Sri Lankans want peace.

In her concluding remarks, Director General of ISS, Dr Shireen Mazari observed, “Sri Lanka’s lonely struggle to eradicate terrorism from its soil has proven once again how indifferent the world at large was to Sri Lankan long standing ethnic agony”.

At the end, she drew the attention of the participants towards Indian-backed infiltration across international borders with Nepal, Sri Lanka and Pakistan where Indians are playing highly negative role and demanded of international community to do something about it. —Zia-ur-Rehman Hashmi