by Simon Bradley, swissinfo.ch

Almost four years after Sri Lankan government forces crushed Tamil rebels, Switzerland is backing a South African post-Apartheid reconciliation initiative to bring parties to the negotiating table, but the prospect for lasting peace remains elusive.

Since 2011 South Africa and civil society groups have been leading a multi-pronged peace initiative aimed at restarting Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and Sri Lankan government negotiations and supporting potential reconciliation efforts following the end of 30 years of war.

Sri Lankan and South African officials visited each other on several occasions last year and a TNA delegation flew to Africa for further contacts earlier this month.

Eager to help find a durable peace solution for the southeast Asian state, Switzerland is lending financial and political support to the South African initiative.

“Switzerland is convinced that only an inclusive dialogue can bring about a lasting solution to the political conflict in which all parties, including the minorities, co-decide on an equal footing,” said Swiss foreign ministry spokeswoman Carole Wälti.

Observers say potentially the South African experience has much to teach post-war Sri Lanka, but the initiative comes with risks attached.

“Governments concerned with sustainable peace in Sri Lanka also need to be careful that their desire for constructive engagement does not end up facilitating Colombo’s intransigence and delaying tactics,” declared an International Crisis Group (ICG) report last November.

“Hard to be optimistic”

Alan Keenan, an ICG Sri Lanka expert, went further, stating that it was “hard to be optimistic” about the South African initiative: “If it has any value, it is only as a long-term channel for eventual trust-building between the parties. But the onus is on the Sri Lankan government to show a willingness to match the many compromises that the main Tamil party has made recently … I don’t see this happening any time soon.”

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Sri Lankan journalists demonstrate over a dozen killings of editors, reporters and newspaper workers, and press freedoms in Colombo on January 29, 2013 (AFP)