Word: lankans
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...Lanka isn't out of the jungle yet. After five rounds of highly productive peace talks?in which the LTTE formally abandoned its goal of secession?the two sides are only now facing the core issues that will make or break a deal, including a rewriting of the Sri Lankan constitution and the delicate issue of when and how the fanatical Tigers will hang up their suicide suits, dispose of their cyanide capsules and surrender their guns. As a result, Sri Lankans are living in unaccustomed security?but they've yet to earn much of a peace dividend...
...acutely aware that talks could be long-winded: he often cites the failed peace process between Israel and the Palestinians. "What I'm trying to do," he says, "is move it fast this year to make it irreversible." Wickremesinghe is hoping that a year of normalcy will convince Sri Lankans on both sides of the ethnic divide that these talks, unlike many in the past, must succeed. "It became clear the LTTE could not throw the Sri Lankan armed forces out of the North and East," he says. "Neither could the armed forces crush the LTTE. It was a stalemate...
...LANKA Tiger Cubs Tamil Tiger rebels admitted they're still recruiting children to fight, Scandinavian peace monitors said. The leader of the Tigers' political wing, S.P. Thamilchelvan, blamed ill-disciplined junior members for recruiting more than 300 children in the past year. But Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga said that the Tigers had recruited 10,000 soldiers, including an unspecified number of children, despite the cease-fire that has held since February...
...week's end, Helgesen was close. Negotiators from the rebel Liberation Tamil Tigers of Eelam and the Sri Lankan government had made such remarkable progress that a return to the conflict?which has cost 64,000 lives since 1983?has become all but unthinkable. The turning point came Dec. 4, when Tiger negotiators abandoned their demand for a separate state. The next day, negotiators announced an outline for a new federal system allowing Tamil-speaking areas the right to "internal self-determination...
...Until last year it was only possible to dive the east coast if you were accompanied by the Sri Lankan navy. "You had to bring your own equipment and be a pretty confident diver," says Mick Smith, an Australian-born Colombo resident. "But the wrecks are something special." Today, dive operations are springing up along the coast, and divers in the deep harbor are rewarded with a glimpse of infrequently visited iron skeletons. Always go with a registered guide or dive master familiar with the area, however, as in many places live ammunition still lies scattered on the seabed...