Word: separatist
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...most significant change is the deflation of the separatist bubble. The cooling of extremism resulted partly from the passage of provincial laws making French Quebec's official language and assuring French speakers that they would not be treated as second-class citizens. More important, probably, was the realization that Quebec, whose 6.5 million residents comprise nearly a quarter of all Canadians, could not hope to stand alone either politically or economically. Quebec voters said non to separation in a 1980 referendum. They repeated the message two years ago by turning against the nationalist Parti Quebecois long led by Rene Levesque...
...gives members of the Tamil minority substantial local governing powers in the parts of the country where they predominate. The Tamils, most of them Hindus, make up 12.5% of the island's 16.7 million inhabitants and are concentrated in its northern and eastern provinces. Since the pact was signed, separatist Tamil guerrillas have ended their war and have begun to lay down arms under the watchful eyes of 7,000 Indian peacekeeping troops...
...moment of anger and frustration for Vellupillai Prabakaran, leader of Sri Lanka's separatist Tamil Tiger guerrillas. Speaking before some 70,000 members of the country's Tamil minority on the grounds of a Hindu temple in the Jaffna peninsula, the rebel leader promised that his 3,500 followers would hand over their arms to Indian peacekeeping forces that had started streaming into the north and east of the country five days earlier. The vast assembly cheered in approval, barely listening as Prabakaran added bitterly, "We do not accept this accord. But, because India is a powerful country...
India's decision to intervene so visibly in the civil war apparently slowed the Sri Lankan government's military campaign. Though Tamils make up only 18% of the island's 16 million people, the separatist guerrillas have found support and safe haven among the 50 million Tamils living across the strait in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Last week's airlift seemed to indicate that Gandhi was giving in to pressure from Indian Tamils to intervene more actively in Sri Lanka. Said an official in Colombo: "Whatever India may say about humanitarian aid, what they actually wanted...
Canadians, especially those outside French-speaking Quebec, were understandably irate back in 1967 when French President Charles de Gaulle stood on a balcony at Montreal's city hall and encouraged the province's then violent separatist movement with his cry of "Vive le Quebec libre ((Long live free Quebec))." Until President Francois Mitterrand arrived last week, no French chief of state had set foot on Canadian soil since then...