Word: lankans
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Virtually every night since then, small groups of guerrillas have stolen across the waters to prepare for a showdown battle with the Sri Lankan army. Last week the war all but broke out. First the rebels, who represent the island's 2.6 million mostly Hindu Tamils in a separatist struggle against 11 million mainly Buddhist Sinhalese, killed three civilians whom they suspected of being government informers. Then they planted a bomb that ripped apart sections of a train in the capital, Colombo. Finally, hundreds of the so- called Tamil Tigers cut off electricity in the northern city of Jaffna, blasted...
...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 Lalith Athulathmudali, Jayawardene's Minister of National Security: "This is the most dangerous time Sri Lanka has ever known...
...Tamils," says a U.S. official, "have been on the losing end of Sri Lankan democracy for decades." Simmering unrest finally came to a boil in July 1983. After the Tigers killed 13 soldiers in an ambush, Sinhalese mobs ran wild through Colombo, killing at least 412 Tamils and leaving 100,000 others homeless...
...government, which has received advice on antiguerrilla operations from Israeli intelligence experts, claims not to be intimidated by the Tigers' growing strength. "These terrorists say that their ultimate goal is to take on the Sri Lankan army, face to face, in conventional infantry warfare," says Athulathmudali. "How I wish they would. I am ready. The army is ready." That sentiment is not echoed by all Sri Lankan officers. "We do not have enough troops," says Brigadier Hamilton Wanasinghe, the military commander for the Jaffna peninsula. "We are building our strength, but it will take time...
...confrontation with the army. Should the guerrillas effectively seize control of the north of the island, Jayawardene might be forced to step down in favor of a government more sympathetic to Tamil grievances. "The initiative now lies with the forces of violence," says a Sri Lankan colonel. "We would be stupid not to admit that they have the strength to do what they want." But Western analysts also suspect that if the Tigers, whose politics range from Marxism to Tamil nationalism, do manage to triumph, they may find themselves unable to remain united, let alone administer their newly won territory...