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- <text id=90TT1624>
- <title>
- June 25, 1990: World Notes:Sri Lanka
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1990
- June 25, 1990 Who Gives A Hoot?
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- WORLD, Page 35
- World Notes
- SRI LANKA
- Playing Cops And Killers
- </hdr>
- <body>
- <p> Just when Sri Lankans thought they had seen the end of it,
- war returned last week with blistering force. The Liberation
- Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a guerrilla group fighting for an
- independent ethnic Tamil homeland, attacked several police
- stations in Sri Lanka's northeastern province. At least 300
- people are believed to have died in the first days of fighting;
- some reports said at least 100 of them were policemen executed
- by the rebels. The government dispatched an additional 4,200
- troops to the region (the total now: 15,000) and began using
- helicopter gunships, artillery and aerial bombardment to crush
- the guerrillas.
- </p>
- <p> The fighting marks the resumption of an old battle: since
- 1983, the Sri Lankan army and the Tigers have fought for
- control of the island's northern and eastern regions, where the
- Tigers want to declare an independent state called Eelam. So
- far, the conflict has cost 11,000 lives. Since March, the
- Tigers and the government have been on peaceful, if wary,
- terms. But in recent weeks tensions climbed as the rebels,
- accusing Sri Lankan leaders of delaying elections, promised a
- fight if the government did not deliver. They were as good as
- their word.
- </p>
-
- </body>
- </article>
- </text>
-
-