Of significance is the fact that the deadly bomb blasts in the past two days, killing nearly 20 people and maiming over 100, came at a time when international donors were meeting later this month to finalise their aid plans for the country in the range of $4.5 billions. That aid is conditional to the progress of peace. And, one of the blasts took place precisely in the same district where the meeting is scheduled, also a tourism hub. The message is all too clear.

Peace in Sri Lanka is easier said than implemented. A rare opportunity came when, four years ago, a forward-looking Wikremesinghe government edged closer to a deal with the LTTE. It was however that the other side of the political spectrum, led by president Chandrika Kumaratunga, put a spoke into the Norwegian-brokered peace wheels.

If Sri Lanka should progress, a solution to the LTTE problem is a matter of first priority. For one, tourism had been Sri Lanka’s major money-spinning industry, which, faced with violence, beat a retreat. For another, peace is a pre-requisite for development. The country remains largely backward, if one were to go by its lack of industrialisation and its poor security and defence systems that are not matching with that, even, of the rebels.