How much more blood will be shed before the Sinhalese dominated Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) settle for peace? They are at it again, tensions mount and so do the causalities.

In October-November 2007, the government forces met some success in killing LTTE high ranking cadres, notably among them was SP Thamilselvan, who was head of LTTE’s political wing.

The army also laid claim to destroying gun running ships of the Tamil Tigers but not before the dreaded outfit had destroyed 8 aircrafts along with the base where they were stationed.Earlier on 14th July, 2007, the army had victoriously declared that the eastern province infested with LTTE cadres, had been cleared of it for the first time in 14 years.

The civil war that erupted after Black Friday in July 1983 has already consumed over 70,000 lives in the ethnic strife. The island nation’s economy is embroiled in increasing defense expenditure, while the prevailing security situation does hit the tourism trade, which is one of the mainstays of Sri Lanka economy.

Tamil homeland (Eelam) propagated and fought for by Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is far from having achieved its objective. Many countries across the globe have branded LTTE as one of the deadliest terrorist organization, anywhere in the world. Though LTTE has been able to carve out a ’self ruled’ northern territory centered around Jaffna but fear stalks the land under control.

The World brands Velupillai Prabhakaran, head of the Tamil Tigers outfit, as a notorious and dreaded terrorist. For the Tamil people and the expatriates who have suffered at the hands of the Sinhalese brutality continue to believe in him and hold him as the last hope of securing a homeland for the Sri Lankan Tamils.

Even the Al-Qaedya, the Islamist terrorist organization centered around the Osama bin Laden cult does not possess air power but the LTTE have assembled together a small air force fleet that has struck deep into Sinhalese dominated areas, raising the stakes of the never ending war.

After all a small number of 10,000 armed LTTE cadres has prevailed upon a 250,000 Sri Lankan army and even rendered a bloody nose for the Indian Peace Keeping Force that tried to intervene in the conflict, in the late eighties and early nineties.

LTTE for its role in the murder of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi is politically considered an untouchable by India. However, across the Palk Strait, there is sympathy among the Indian Tamils for their fellow brethren on the island nation.

Not just a former Indian prime minister but even a Sri Lankan president has been blown up a LTTE suicide bomber. Yet peace has remained elusive. A 2002 ceasefire brokered by the Norwegian government has not held out hope for the people seeking respite in the conflict zone. On paper the ceasefire between the LTTE and Sri Lankan still holds but on the ground, the war goes on.A military solution to achieve peace among the warring ethnicities will not succeed. The Buddhist Sinhalese who constitute about 75 percent of the population on the island need to show compassion and have a just and fair societyby including the Tamil minority in political and governance structures.

Disenfranchising a minority, keeping them out of government and army jobs, burning and looting their businesses with the state authorities looking the other way and none brought to justice, will never repair that the deep fissures that exist among the two communities.

A separate homeland for Tamils on the island may not be economically viable but should the two sides remain in perpetual confrontation, it may become a political reality.