"Older men declare war. But it’s the youth who must fight and die!" Herbert Hoover

At the time of writing, the LTTE has reportedly taken refuge in the Civilian Safe Zone (CSZ) of some varying number of square kilometres, amongst thousands of trapped civilians, according to Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) figures and more than double that according to figures of the United Nations and other international organisations.

"Once we capture this land We will win the war" we are told. Does ‘capturing territory’ mean the end of the war? Do claims of defeating the enemy militarily mean winning the war? It sounds more to me like claiming to have destroyed cancer cells with paracetamol!

The longer it takes for these trapped civilians to be rescued from the clutches of the LTTE, the greater the danger of these people becoming victims of the ‘Stockholm Syndrome’- a psychological consequence when the hostages start to show signs of loyalty to their captors, despite the danger or risks involved.

As far as the LTTE diaspora are concerned, they will want nothing short of a separate state- Eelam! After all the heavy investments they have made running into billions of dollars over the past three decades, sacrificed life and limb, will they bow their heads to a political solution?

In the unlikely event a political solution is found, at the risk of it being shot down by extremist elements in the South, Eelam or whatever it might be called in the future, will continue to hang over our heads like the Sword of Damocles and for generations to come.

There will also be the political divide in Sri Lanka that has been so prominently playing the role of a ‘spoiler’ to any Peace Process in Sri Lanka-the ongoing short-sighted rivalry between the two main political parties of this country- the United National Party (UNP) and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) which has landed us in this mess, since we gained independence from colonial rule.

Sri Lanka’s politicians have ‘played politics’ with the call for a separate state by the LTTE, since the Tamil national liberation struggle became militarised in 1983. They are doing it now and they will do it in the future too. Therefore, we will never be rid of the scourge of terrorism, be it called the LTTE or any other. This is the legacy left to us by our forefathers and one that we will be forced to hand down to the generations to come!

"Those who can win a war well can rarely make a good peace and those who could make a good peace would never have won the war."- Winston Churchill

I recall as a school-girl during the late 1960s - 1970s, my multi-ethnic classmates and I became victims of a drastic policy change in the educational system - all of us became compartmentalised. The child whose parents were both Sinhalese went into the Sinhala stream and the Tamil child into the Tamil stream. Burgher, Muslim and children of mixed parentage went into the English stream, did all their subjects of study in English and took their examinations as such.

For me this was a nightmare, because I came from a home where only English was spoken, read and heard, since both my Sinhala Buddhist parents were educated in English. I had to have private tuition in every single subject except English!

My parents belong to a generation when the medium of instruction in education was English, and they grew up with Sri Lankans belonging to all ethnic categories of Sri Lanka. Their children were those I grew up with- Tamil, Sinhala, Muslim, Burgher et al.

However, post July 83’ I found my childhood Tamil friends regarding the LTTE as their heroes, "they are fighting for our cause" they kept saying and I kept mum, because I had just turned 20 and seven months pregnant. That is when reality struck me- what kind of a life was I brining my unborn child into?

This compartmentalising of the education system on an ethnic basis continued, and it also affected my son and my late friend Ravi John’s son, both born in 1983. Since Ravi and I were friends and colleagues in the broadcasting profession, both our little boys became buddies from a very early age.

However, when the time came for our sons to enter school- Royal College Colombo, my son was accepted into the Sinhala stream since both his father and I are Sinhalese. But Ravi’s son despite being of mixed parentage (his mother is a Sinhalese) and eligible to enter the English stream, but there was no English stream at Royal College Colombo by then. Therefore he was accepted into the Tamil stream. Thereafter, and as expected, both our boys found new friends and drifted apart.