Word: eelam
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Over the past two years, the guerrillas' increasingly intensive struggle to win an independent homeland (known in Tamil as Eelam) within the northern and southeastern parts of the island has brought Sri Lanka perilously close to full-scale civil war. Today much of Sri Lanka's northern region, which is heavily populated by Tamils, is under de facto military rule, garrisoned by nearly half the 12,000-man-strong Sri Lankan army. Since the collapse of ; negotiations between the government of President J.R. Jayawardene and leading Tamil politicians last December, more than 700 people, mostly civilians, have been killed. Says...
...mindful of the island's strategic location, continues to back Jayawardene's pro-Western government but is not holding out the prospect of U.S. military aid. India, home to almost 50 million Tamils of its own, insists that it does not favor the creation of a separate Eelam but turns a blind eye to at least 20 training camps in India run by the Tigers...