  We revisit the problem of the three-soliton collisions in the weakly
perturbed sine-Gordon equation and develop an effective three-particle model
allowing to explain many interesting features observed in numerical simulations
of the soliton collisions. In particular, we explain why collisions between two
kinks and one antikink are observed to be practically elastic or strongly
inelastic depending on relative initial positions of the kinks. The fact that
the three-soliton collisions become more elastic with an increase in the
collision velocity also becomes clear in the framework of the three-particle
model. The three-particle model does not involve internal modes of the kinks,
but it gives a qualitative description to all the effects observed in the
three-soliton collisions, including the fractal scattering and the existence of
short-lived three-soliton bound states. The radiationless energy exchange
between the colliding solitons in weakly perturbed integrable systems takes
place in the vicinity of the separatrix multi-soliton solutions of the
corresponding integrable equations, where even small perturbations can result
in a considerable change in the collision outcome. This conclusion is
illustrated through the use of the reduced three-particle model.
