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After protracted delays, the long-awaited talks between the Government of Sri Lanka and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam are likely to begin in mid-August.
Disclosing this in Bangalore on Monday, Lankan Tourism Minister Gamini Lokuge said the government was hopeful of a breakthrough in the talks. Norway is acting as the mediator in the process.
"We are confident that the talks with the battle-weary LTTE will be fruitful this time," Lokuge said. "We are looking forward for the discussions to begin."
The venue for the talks is likely to be Thailand's capital, Bangkok.
The Norwegian government is also trying to get LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran to the table to thrash out all issues at one go, Lokuge said.
Admitting that the two-decade-old ethnic war had devastated Sri Lanka's economy and driven away tourists, investors, and trade, Lokuge said it was only after the ceasefire earlier this year that people had begun to see the light of peace and prosperity at the end of the tunnel.
Asked whether any time frame had been worked out to resolve the dispute, Lokuge told rediff.com that efforts were on to find a lasting peace so that normalcy could be restored in the country by the end of 2002.
"Apart from thousands of people being killed in the mindless violence that gripped the island nation, paralysing the economy, tourism was the worst-hit industry in those troubled times," he said.
The new United National Party government headed by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has realised how important peace and harmony are for the country's prosperity, he said.
Though a ceasefire is in force in the island country, and the ground situation is quite normal, a permanent solution to the ethnic war with Norwegian assistance is paramount to revive the economy, the minister added.
Lokuge arrived in Bangalore with a delegation of trade and tourism officials on the inaugural Sri Lanka Airlines flight to the garden city, launched as part of its direct service from Colombo thrice a week.
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