The best indication of a terrorist outfit's failure to get out of a cul-de-sac it fights its way into is an offer of a truce. When it is strong and cocky, it doesn't give a tinker's damn about peace; it unleashes hell on others. But, when it sees the writing on the wall, it waves an olive branch tied to a gun barrel hoping that its enemies would fall for the trick.
This exactly is what the LTTE terrorists have reported to have done. According to a statement attributed to LTTE terrorist Nadesan, it has become amenable to a ceasefire all of a sudden! This has come as no surprise. A ceasefire is the only hope for the LTTE terrorists, which is being encircled in the Wanni. The history of its armed struggle shows it sues for peace every five or six years to gain a boost for its war effort.
Having carried out its first major attack on the military in 1983, the LTTE terrorists formally entered into a ceasefire with the Premadasa government in 1989 and their honeymoon lasted till June the following year. After the PA formed a government in 1994, the LTTE terrorists, having lost a part of the Eastern Province due to a military campaign by the Wijetunge government, lured the Kumaratunga government into accepting its offer of a truce, which it torpedoed in 1995 by sinking two naval gunboats in the Trincomalee harbour. Terrorist Prabhakaran made peace overtures again in 2001 and signed a Norwegian drafted CFA with the UNF government the following year.
