Word: pacts
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...turned out, Rajiv Gandhi was not injured. Nonetheless, the attack was a painful reminder to the Prime Minister of how much strife and distrust had been aroused by the pact he had just initialed -- and how uncertain were its chances of success. For four years Sri Lanka, a teardrop of an island off India's southern coast, has been plagued by a vicious battle that has claimed more than 6,000 lives. Pitting the Sinhalese majority against the minority Tamils, the conflict has not only imperiled Jayewardene's government but threatened to drag New Delhi further into a war that...
...duties. Those efforts promised + to be tricky; the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the largest and most militant of five rebel groups, insisted that they would not consider disarming until New Delhi released their leader, Vellupillai Prabakaran. He had been under house arrest in New Delhi after calling the pact a "stab in the back, but early this week Prabakaran was released and returned to Jaffna after pledging that he would ask his commanders to disarm...
Gandhi tried to persuade the Tigers to sign the pact, but to no avail. An Indian air force helicopter picked up Tiger Chief Prabakaran in Jaffna two weeks ago and brought him to India. During three days of discussions in New Delhi, including a meeting with Gandhi, the Tiger leader refused to go along, arguing that his fighters would not be safe without their weapons once Indian forces departed. Watched by paramilitary guards, Prabakaran remained confined to his room at the government-owned Ashok Hotel while the treaty was being initialed in Colombo. The Tiger leadership and several smaller rebel...
...violence in Colombo's streets indicated, Jayewardene still faces serious obstacles in persuading the Sinhalese majority to accept the pact. On the day of the signing, the government declared a curfew in the capital and deployed soldiers to keep demonstrators from approaching the presidential residence. Senior police and military officers also had their hands full trying to keep their own unhappy forces in line. Said an enlisted man: "I have been wearing this uniform for four days. But what use is it? I am unable to support my own people." Obviously, though, dissent was not far from the surface...
Even as Gandhi was signing the peace pact in Sri Lanka, his government came under unprecedented attack in the national Parliament. Members shouted insults at one another and almost came to blows. The opposition staged sit-downs in the well of the lower house, shoving Gandhi supporters, grabbing the notes of a Cabinet minister and creating such a shrill racket that sessions had to be repeatedly adjourned. The dissenting M.P.s, who are outnumbered 4 to 1 by Gandhi's Congress (I) Party, were trying to stop the creation of a parliamentary committee to investigate a government contract with the Bofors...