Word: eelam
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a group of ethnic Tamil guerrilla fighters, are widely supposed to be responsible for his death. They are battling to restore a separate Tamil homeland in the northern region of Sri Lanka. Neelan was known for his politics of reconciliation, especially his recent efforts to work with the Sinhalese-dominated government to change parts of the country's constitution to give the Tamils more autonomy...
Police officials told the Daily News that they had on several occasions warned Neelan to change his daily route from home to office and back. They said Neelan was considered a potential target of another Tamil faction, the radical Liberation Tigers for Tamil Eelam, which is suspected in the killing. No one has officially claimed responsibility for the death...
Just when Sri Lankans thought they had seen the end of it, war returned last week with blistering force. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a guerrilla group fighting for an independent ethnic Tamil homeland, attacked several police stations in Sri Lanka's northeastern province. At least 300 people are believed to have died in the first days of fighting; some reports said at least 100 of them were policemen executed by the rebels. The government dispatched an additional 4,200 troops to the region (the total now: 15,000) and began using helicopter gunships, artillery and aerial bombardment...
...fighting marks the resumption of an old battle: since 1983, the Sri Lankan army and the Tigers have fought for control of the island's northern and eastern regions, where the Tigers want to declare an independent state called Eelam. So far, the conflict has cost 11,000 lives. Since March, the Tigers and the government have been on peaceful, if wary, terms. But in recent weeks tensions climbed as the rebels, accusing Sri Lankan leaders of delaying elections, promised a fight if the government did not deliver. They were as good as their word...
...final exit of the Indian forces has defused one of Sri Lanka's most combustible issues. But the pullout also created a power vacuum in the island's north and east that was quickly filled by the militants the Indians had been fighting, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, who have yet to renounce their goal of a separate state for the country's minority Tamils. For now, the separatists and the central government in Colombo are working in concert for peace, but their alliance is anything but stable...