Sri Lanka's peace dividend

At the height of Sri Lanka's civil war, a
billion dollars was being spent on the fight
against the Tamil Tiger rebels. Now that a
tentative ceasefire is in place, much of that
money is being re-directed into projects to
rebuild the country. The government is
promising to spend the savings on new
roads and electricity supplies, and on
creating much-needed jobs.

Newsline's Claire Cavanagh asked Dr
Paikiasothy Saravanamuthu, the Executive
Director of the Centre for Policy
Alternatives in Colombo, whether it was a
realistic aim.

"I think what the government is talking about here is that there are
savings to be made as a consequence of there not being any
full-scale hostilities. What the government does realize is that it
needs to go into a more accelerated and high-profile programme of
economic development in order to demonstrate tangible, positive
benefits to the people at large arising out of the ceasefire process."

"Besides, we're heading into a cycle of elections, starting with
provincial council elections and ending with the presidential
election in two years' time. And so I think the government is now
focusing its attention on maintaining a feel-good factor and
concentrating on economic issues in the context of that electoral
cycle and indeed the ongoing peace process."

Radio Netherlands

Sri Lanka is doing the right thing by rebuilding...
I had my doubts...
but this peace really seems to have legs..

and the President seems to take it personally
that the PM was elected to make peace,
but everybody else seems agreed that more killing
is a bad answer to whatever issues there are.

I figure the longer they keep the lid on, the harder
it gets to go back to war.