Word: tamils
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Slogging their way through heavy rains, 6,000 Indian troops surrounded Jaffna town in northern Sri Lanka last week and advanced in a four-pronged assault. Resisting them every step of the way were about 2,000 guerrillas from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the rebel group that has led a four-year struggle to gain an independent homeland for the West Virginia-size island's Tamil minority. Tens of thousands of terrified civilians were caught in the middle of the fighting. Most of them abandoned their homes and huddled in temples and schools, as food supplies grew scarce...
...Rajiv Gandhi and Sri Lanka's President Junius R. Jayewardene signed a peace pact aimed at ending the civil strife. According to that agreement, a peacekeeping force from India, Sri Lanka's closest neighbor, was responsible for disarming the rebels. An "interim council" was to be formed in the Tamil-dominated northern and eastern provinces, which would be merged and granted a substantial degree of local rule after elections, scheduled to be held before the end of this year...
...agreement forged by New Delhi and Colombo in July to end Sri Lanka's four- year civil war was badly mauled last week as the separatist guerrillas known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam went on a rampage. The Tigers butchered at least 170 civilians and 27 Sri Lankan soldiers and policemen after 13 of their members in Colombo's hands committed suicide with cyanide pills. The deceased rebels were among 17 guerrillas captured by the Sri Lankan navy last week for allegedly smuggling arms and ammunition into the country by trawler from India...
...task he referred to was to put into practice a month-old peace accord that 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...
Much will depend on the Tigers, many of them originally armed and trained in India's nearby Tamil Nadu state. The rebels, who still hope to establish a separate Tamil nation, promised to lay down their weapons only to avoid confrontation with the 7,000 Indian troops who are enforcing the agreement. An amnesty for rebels and Tamil prisoners took effect last week. Even so, compliance with the surrender seemed halfhearted. At a Jaffna air base, Sri Lankan officials received six truckloads of guerrilla weaponry, including .50- cal. machine guns, AK-47 assault rifles and homemade mortars. But the arms...