War-torn Sri Lanka begins ceasefire

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was elected on a promise to open peace talks with the LTTE

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka -- War-torn Sri Lanka began its first full ceasefire in nearly seven years at midnight Monday, fueling hopes that peace talks with Tamil Tiger separatists would end an 18-year long conflict.

The truce by both sides comes after the newly elected government said at the weekend it would match a holiday ceasefire declared by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), fighting since 1983 for a separate Tamil state in the north and east.

In New Delhi, Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said he hoped the ceasefire would continue beyond its initial period of a month.

"The cessation of hostilities (is) starting tonight and going on till 24th of January. My feeling is since the (economic) embargo is being lifted, the cessation of hostilities will continue after January 24," Wickremesinghe told a news conference after a three-day visit to New Delhi.

A military spokesman said there would be no offensive action from the government and troops have been ordered "not to provoke the enemy."

All roads in Sri Lanka had been ordered reopened. By Monday, most of the 150 police and military checkpoints were gone around Colombo.

The streets were free from the soldiers who frequently stopped joggers and morning walkers to ask for ID cards.

In the past four years, there have been more than a dozen rebel attacks on Colombo. The latest was on October 5 when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a checkpoint, killing four others.

Marked contrast

Wickremesinghe's move to match the ceasefire declared last week was in sharp contrast to the actions of the previous People's Alliance government, which launched an offensive last year just hours after the Tigers declared a similar holiday truce.

In the past four years there have been more than a dozen rebel attacks on Colombo

The last ceasefire observed by both sides ended in April 1995 when Tamil rebels launched an attack on government Navy boats, halting a truce that had lasted about four months.

Hopes for a lasting peace process have risen since Wickremesinghe's United National Party and a Muslim ally won a general election on December 5 on a campaign pledge to open peace talks to end the ethnic strife that has left an estimated 64,000 dead.

The country's new leader has been in touch "informally" with Norway, which has tried for the past two years to broker negotiations.

The government said it would make a formal request to Oslo to resume peace talks in the next few days, after which the first priority would be "to get the humanitarian issues going" -- a process which could "take a month or more."

The government's is working to allow food, medicines and other essential goods to flow to the Tamil-controlled northern parts of country, which Wickremesinghe hopes could keep the two sides from resuming fighting.