Word: eelam
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...massacre bore all the hallmarks of the guerrilla group known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and came almost exactly one year after Indian troops launched their offensive to disarm the Tigers. Indian soldiers had arrived in Sri Lanka in July 1987 to help implement an Indo-Sri Lankan agreement that gives the minority Tamils a greater measure of autonomy. But militants on opposite sides of the bloody Sri Lankan conflict united in rejecting the agreement...
...sent extra troops to Sri Lanka early this month to help end fighting by the island's Tamil separatists, the assumption was that the operation would be relatively quick and painless. After all, India's soldiers outnumbered the roughly 2,000 members of the ragtag Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam more than 3 to 1, and had the backing of Sri Lankan President Junius R. Jayewardene. But the offensive dragged on, offering little hope that the guerrillas will give up their four-year battle for an independent Tamil homeland...
Slogging their way through heavy rains, 6,000 Indian troops surrounded Jaffna town in northern Sri Lanka last week and advanced in a four-pronged assault. Resisting them every step of the way were about 2,000 guerrillas from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the rebel group that has led a four-year struggle to gain an independent homeland for the West Virginia-size island's Tamil minority. Tens of thousands of terrified civilians were caught in the middle of the fighting. Most of them abandoned their homes and huddled in temples and schools, as food supplies grew scarce...
...agreement forged by New Delhi and Colombo in July to end Sri Lanka's four- year civil war was badly mauled last week as the separatist guerrillas known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam went on a rampage. The Tigers butchered at least 170 civilians and 27 Sri Lankan soldiers and policemen after 13 of their members in Colombo's hands committed suicide with cyanide pills. The deceased rebels were among 17 guerrillas captured by the Sri Lankan navy last week for allegedly smuggling arms and ammunition into the country by trawler from India...
...rebels, dominated by the 3,500-man Tigers, demand a unified, independent state of "Eelam" (homeland) for Tamils in the island's northern and eastern provinces. Outnumbered by the Sri Lankan military and poorly armed, the 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...