Peace Process in Sri Lanka: Challenges and Opportunities

With Sri Lanka sliding back into an undeclared conflict, should one assume that the 2002 Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) represents another lost opportunity for peace in Sri Lanka? Or is there still room for putting the country back on the road to peace? Indeed achieving peace is a long process and entails overcoming several challenges. In the midst of political competition, economic deterioration and dwindling overall development of the country as well as its citizens, the stakes are as high as the challenges are real.

The peace process in Sri Lanka has been affected by several internal and external factors, some posing serious challenges while others presenting opportunities for positive progress. In the pursuit of what lies ahead for the peace process in Sri Lanka, the Centre for Security Analysis, Chennai in collaboration with the Hanns Seidel Foundation, New Delhi and Sri Lanka Foundation Institute, Colombo held a seminar on Peace Process in Sri Lanka: Challenges and Opportunities coincidentally preceding the February 2006 Geneva Peace Talks. This publication is the result of the deliberations made at the Seminar.