The only way peace would have worked with the LTTE is with the establishment of Eelam. Since they knew the government would never submit to that, for the LTTE, every ceasefire was a technical time-out.

I was reading an article by J.B.S. Jeyaraj, and a came across the following:

Meanwhile the Sri Lankan govt had also declared two
limited ceasefires. One was for three days from February 1st to 3rd. The other was for two days on April 3th and 14th. The purpose was to facilitate civilians moving out from the war zone.

But the LTTE imposed further restrictions and the number of civilians coming out dropped during ceasefire days. But the LTTE exploited the ceasefire in february to mount a very effective counter strike on Feb 4th. The april ceasefire was used to construct several new 'trench cum bund' defences.

This was not the first instance they made use of the technical
time-out to regroup, rearm and mount assaults. But I'm pretty sure it was the last. Throughout the conflict, the LTTE has been militarily opportunistic with every ceasefire. Sri Lanka voted for peace several times. The last time was when Ranil W's government was elected back in December 2001. With repeated violations of the ceasefire agreement (CFA), most Sri Lankans became frustrated. Because the government back then tolerated these violations and the military was not allowed to act on it.

With mounting opposition, Ranil W's government was dissolved and the present regime came in to power. The present regime honored the CFA, despite the LTTE trying to assassinate the Army
Commander in April 2006, the assassination of Lt. Gen. Parami
Kulatunga in June 2006 and the Kebithigollewa massacre in June 2006. There were several other attacks made by the LTTE on civilians and military personnel.

Could Ranil W have convinced the Sun God of the LTTE to lay down arms and adopt a democratic path? The problem with Ranil W is that he is so disconnected with the masses. He did not bother to communicate his plans to the masses. He lost the propaganda war in Sri Lanka.

So I ask myself again, would peace have worked with the LTTE?

Let's suppose Eelam was given to the LTTE, would Prabhakaran be satisfied with it? We often assume that he is a normal human being as opposed to a psychopath, like Stalin, Hitler, Ted Bunddy or John Wayne Gacy! As my cousin would say: He only agreed to ceasefire cause he wanted to prepare for more battles. It's a mental disease like being a serial killer.

Thus, I suppose it would take someone with enlightenment to convince both the LTTE and the Sri Lankan masses that peace could work.

"Si vis pacem, para bellum" - "If you wish for peace, prepare for war" - Wikipedia

And that we did!