I met recently a young couple from West Bengal in Koddaikkanal of the Nilgries Mountains in India on a private visit last year. They were too keen on finding what is going on in Sri Lanka and whether there is any possibility for peace in the near future. What I could have answered to them other than just keeping silent.

Another major issue why so far both communities could not come to a settlement, is mostly on the fear what Tamils ask, are if once provided, will lead to separation.

The solutions should be based on the realities of the contemporary social, ethnical and economical problems and not by the anticipation of something whether that will happen or not.

Though some pre-cautionary measures could be taken by the mutual acceptance of the both parties but that should not undermine the main objective.

If we are going to waste more and more time for the right time for negotiation, implementation and more wide study for the pre-cautionary set-ups, then the country will be in the lines of Israel-Palestinian conflict.

A Palestinian told me sometime back that if Yasser Arafat had accepted what Israel has proposed twenty years ago, we would have gained much more than what now they are willing to offer us.

I feel that if Israel had applied more diplomacy towards accepting the peace accord by the Palestinians, now they would have developed their country into a self-reliant and an economic-power house status in the Middle East than merely begging Americans for everything.

The government and the LTTE will have to navigate jointly this Island into a new direction for a lasting solution rather than checkmating each other.

If the renewed war and the hostility could not be stopped early as possible, then what will happen to peace negotiation? Well, anything is possible in this Planet Earth. Who anticipated the magnitude of present development in the ethnic crisis? Norway is now functioning mostly as a facilitator-mediator status and coming with the support of the international community.

If there is a prolonged checkmating between the government and the LTTE, the facilitator might take the ethnic issue to the UN with the help of some of the permanent member countries of the Security Council. The UN might try to get involved in many grounds in the Sri Lankan politics and on other national interests too by directly or indirectly.

All these suggestions might be some laughing points to some of the foreign policy experts but when India entered into the Sri Lankan Air-Zone, all Sri Lankans silently observed. When Indian Peace Keeping Forces (IPKF) landed in the Sri Lankan soil, they all surprisingly observed. When the LTTE and the then Government were united together, sending the IPKF out of the island, we more surprisingly observed.

Sometimes foreign policy is determined by the circumstances of that time and not by any standard rules and regulations. But if the Sri Lankans couldn't realise anything from their past observations at least at this juncture, then they all are going to observe pathetically, the sovereignty of the Island - Paradise is falling into the hands of some of the International Financial Institutions, International Judicial System and the International Forces in the near future.

Rajkumar Kanagasingam is author of a fascinating book on German memories in Asia and you can explore more about the book and the author at AGSEP