Velupillai Prabhakaran's terror empire stands on a foundation of myths, the biggest being its so-called invincibility. The LTTE is also being described by some as the most ruthless terrorist outfit in the world as if someone had carried out a global survey to measure ruthlessness of terrorist groups! A prerequisite for countering terrorism is to strike at the roots of such well entrenched myths surrounding terrorist organisations.

The President of the Tamil United Liberation Front, Veerasingham Anandasangaree on July 28 has called on the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE), Velupillai Pirabaharan to declare a permanent ceasefire with the Sri Lankan Government surrendering his organization’s arms in the wake of the SAARC summit.

Since oil crisis began in early 1970s due to Arab Israel war, Sri Lanka’s government had been interested in oil exploration as many scientists in the country expressed opinion that there may be potential oil deposits in Mannar Bay to be discovered. When Mrs. Sirimao Bandaranaike was holding power in early 1970s, the opportunities for oil exploration was given to a Russian government sponsored company and newspapers in the country created a dream in the minds of Sri Lankans that oil will be discovered in Sri Lanka’s land giving a rare opportunity to the country to enjoy the benefits of petro-dollars.

Narrow interpretations of cultural identity and models of conflict resolution built on ethnic dualism contribute to ethnic polarization and inhibit sustainable peace. To improve both the analysis and processes of conflict resolution, it is necessary to move beyond the bipolar ethnic model and explore the multi-polar nature of conflicts.

The conflict between the Sri Lankan government and the secessionist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is commonly identified as a primordial ethnic conflict between the Sinhala majority and the Tamil minority. But, much of the long pre-colonial history of Sri Lanka was characterized by ethno-religious pluralism and co-existence over antagonism and conflict. There has been tremendous inter-mixture between Sinhala and Tamil populations as well as the Muslims who are considered an ethno-religious group in Sri Lanka.