He promised that parties besides the LTTE would be allowed to operate in the north-east.
The Tigers have recently apologised to Muslims, whom the LTTE expelled from Jaffna in 1990.
Later Premadasa himself initiated dialogue with the LTTE which went on for more than a year.
But most pundits consider that the LTTE has, by its grisly standards, been somewhat restrained.
Before joining the political mainstream, Karuna had created the TMVP as a breakaway faction of the LTTE.
After a series of unsuccessful frontal attacks on the pass in early April, the LTTE switched tactics.
The same crushing majority also keep telling us: please do not allow the LTTE to come back.
The LTTE subsequently deployed Thayalan in Vavuniya and ordered him to continue studying until they found him a target.
If the LTTE is to pull out at any stage it will have to come up with another reason.
It says the LTTE's failure to understand the changing tactics of the security forces eventually led to their defeat.
The government has ruled out allowing what remnants, if any, exist of the LTTE to return to the political mainstream.
Still, despite the LTTE's past efforts to kill off moderate Tamils, the Tamil community is not lacking in political parties or leaders.
Kumaratunga has said she would offer the constitutional changes to the LTTE in order to open fresh negotiations to end the war.
This prompted the LTTE to launch an assault on Jaffna, whose population of some 350, 000 civilians is guarded by a 30, 000-strong security force.
Repelled by the Tigers' terrorism, and with little sympathy for Tamil grievances, most Sinhalese support the government in its campaign to obliterate the LTTE.
Sri Lanka continues to experience strong economic growth, driven by large-scale reconstruction and development projects following the end of the 26-year conflict with the LTTE.
Meanwhile, the LTTE will seek to rebuild its financing network abroad.
When we were having discussions with the LTTE, I exchanged 44 letters with Prabhakaran, the first time he ever wrote to any politician in the south.
Her best friend, of the same age, and really called Kanchana, was killed after the LTTE gave her a gun and sent her to the front.
Even after the United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government regains control of territory previously held by the LTTE, it is unlikely to restart negotiations with the group.
Many Tamils believe that Sinhala-dominated governments are willing to grant concessions to them only so far as there is military pressure on the government by the LTTE.
Since launching a fresh campaign against the LTTE in 2006, the government has been accused of complicity in the abduction or murder of hundreds of Tamil and Muslim men.
He did not dwell on recent bans on the LTTE by Britain and Canada, or the military stalemate between the rebels and the government, which sharpen the incentive to talk.
So when fresh peace initiatives were made at the beginning of the year, both the government and the LTTE needed to be in a position of strength to begin negotiations.
Acts of generalized violence like the blaze at Kolonnawa or the bomb at the central bank or the deliberate killings of civilians and members of parliament attributed to the LTTE command distracts international opinion from Prabhakaran's political objectives and reputation.
After talks between Kumaratunga and the rebels broke down in 1994, the military captured the densely populated northern peninsula of Jaffna, the heartland of the Tamils where the LTTE had run a de-facto independent state for more than five years.
The government, eager to end a war that has killed 65, 000 people and stunted economic growth, has tried to steer well clear of issues that might inflame Sinhalese nationalists, still unreconciled to making peace with the LTTE, or provoke the Tigers themselves.
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