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Sri Lanka, Tamil Tigers officially end 20 years of conflict

Sri Lanka and its long-time guerilla adversaries, the Tamil Tigers have signed a historic ceasefire, officially ending their twenty years of conflict.

However, as South Asia correspondent Jonathan Harley reports optimism that the peace will hold is being cooled by a history of previous failures.

The Norwegian-brokered agreement is expected to pave the way for substantive political talks perhaps as early as next month. But the optimism is tempered by caution the last formal truce collapsed after a hundred days. This time Scandinavian observers will monitor the ceasefire and both sides are required to give two week's notice if they want to pull out of the truce, compared with three days under the previous deal.

24/02/2002 12:45:51 | ABC Radio Australia News

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