Word: colombos
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...agreement was worked out during three weeks of secret talks between New Delhi and Colombo. Its centerpiece was Jayewardene's concession of local rule in two provinces heavily populated by Tamils, who make up one-eighth of the country's 16 million people. In exchange Gandhi, whose country is home to about 50 million Tamils and who has provided refuge and arms to Tamil insurgents fighting the Colombo government, promised to ensure that the rebels would lay down their arms...
Though Jayewardene eased those laws in 1977, hard feelings lingered. Tamil resentment erupted into sporadic violence. In July 1983 one of those incidents catapulted the country into war: after Tamil terrorists ambushed and killed 13 Sri Lankan soldiers, enraged Sinhalese stampeded through Colombo and killed at least 600 Tamils...
...insurgents would not have gone far without assistance from India. Just 22 miles across the Palk Strait from northern Sri Lanka lies India's Tamil Nadu state, where the rebels maintain training camps. Despite this support, New Delhi did not endorse the Tigers' demand for independence, insisting instead that Colombo grant the Tamil regions local rule...
Jayewardene refused, but in recent months he became convinced that India was determined to stop Colombo's efforts to defeat the Tamil rebels. In June secret talks began through diplomatic intermediaries. Colombo agreed to Tamil self-rule, while India acceded to Jayewardene's request that it impose the settlement on the rebels -- by force if need be. Asked at a news conference last week why he had not made those concessions before, Jayewardene drew gasps when he replied, "Lack of courage on my part, lack of intelligence on my part, lack of foresight on my part...
...heart of the agreement is Colombo's promise to create a single, locally ruled Tamil province in northern and eastern Sri Lanka. By the end of the year, residents of the new region would elect a governor, chief minister and a cabinet. Since Tamils make up 92% of the northern area's residents but only 40% in the eastern region, easterners would decide by referendum next year whether to remain in the unified province. That provision is unacceptable to the Tamils, who fear that the easterners will pull...