Church bells ring for P-TOMS - Ecumenical News International

COLOMBO (ENI)- Church leaders in Sri Lanka have welcomed an agreement between the government and Tamil rebels to allow international aid to reconstruct tsunami-hit areas that are under rebel control as an opportunity to unlock the stalled peace process.

"This is a decision which should have come much earlier," said Anglican Bishop Duleep de Chickera of Colombo. "We are happy the President has shown the determination to push it forward despite opposition."

Senior government officials and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) signed a memorandum of understanding on 24 June to establish a 'joint mechanism' despite protests from groups and parties representing the majority Sinhalese population.

"This is another step for peace," said the Rev. Jayasiri Peiris, general secretary of the National Christian Council of Sri Lanka, which groups Sri Lanka's eight major Protestant churches.

President Chandrika Kumaratunga's People's Alliance coalition government went ahead with the signing of the agreement despite the Sinhala nationalist

Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna party with 39 members in the 225-seat parliament pulling out from the government, thereby reducing it to a minority.

The Tamil rebels have been fighting since 1983 for autonomy for ethnic Tamil majority areas in the north and east of Sri Lanka. The civil war claimed more than 65,000 lives and displaced a million people prior to the signing of a ceasefire in 2002.

Sinhala-speaking Buddhists account for nearly 70 per cent of the island nation's 20 million people, while Hindus, mainly ethnic Tamils, account for 17 per cent. Christians and Muslims account for the remaining 13 per cent of Sri Lankans.

Peiris noted that the President had convened a conference of 1,500 senior Buddhist monks to support joint relief and rehabilitation work in the Tamil rebel-controlled areas from the US$ 3 billion international assistance pledged for tsunami reconstruction in Sri Lanka.

"This is a golden opportunity to revive the deadlocked peace process," said Antony Muthu, a spokesperson of Caritas Sri Lanka, a Roman Catholic aid group.

The 2002 ceasefire between the Tamil rebels and the Sri Lanka army still holds but peace talks have been stalled over demands for interim autonomy for rebel-controlled areas.

"If the government and the LTTE could collaborate for tsunami relief work, it could also pave the way for reviving the peace talks," said Muthu.