NEW DELHI -- Sri Lanka's 18-year-old bloody ethnic crisis between Tamils demanding an independent homeland and the government has always been marked by hope. Even during some of the darkest days of the strife a little over a decade ago, there was always a glimmer of light. Then, New Delhi interfered militarily on the island against the very Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam or LTTE which India -- or more specifically its southern state of Tamil Nadu -- had helped arm and train.
This optimism appears to have grown new wings, especially after Britain's recent move to ban the LTTE. Jehan Perera, who heads the National Peace Council of Sri Lanka, recently told a visiting Indian journalist, "The end to the war is in sight, sooner than later. . . . People say that each conflict has a life cycle of about 20 years. Ours has been 18 years. I think it is more or less over."
There's good ground for Perera's confidence. Mainly, people are clearly fed up of living in a land where danger and fear lurk in very corner, hampering their livelihood.