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Sri Lanka PM warns peace will not be easy

Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has warned that forging peace with Tamil Tiger rebels will not be easy.

As South Asia correspondent Jonathan Harley reports, he's issued the warning after the two sides agreed on a long-awaited truce, which will take effect tomorrow morning.

The Norwegian-brokered truce will be monitored by a team of Scandanavian oberservers, helped by delegates nominated by the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan government. It's the first bilateral truce in seven years and is expected to pave the way for political negotiations within the next few months. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe won elections in December promising to revive peace efforts. The Tamil Tiger's struggle to win a homeland in the north, separate from Sri Lanka's Sinhalese majority has claimed more than 60-thousand lives over the last two decades.

23/02/2002 08:55:10 | ABC Radio Australia News

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