Word: jaffna
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After a week of fighting, Sri Lankan troops had battled their way up Jaffna Peninsula, ousting ethnic Tamil separatists from a number of strongholds in the northern tip of the island nation. The cost was high: as many as 200 civilians believed dead and thousands more left without food. But, said a high-ranking official in Colombo, the capital, "we were winning...
...ceasefires, only to see the fragile agreement crumble. Sri Lanka's President J.R. Jayewardene, for his part, has offered greater political autonomy to the Tamils but rejects the idea of an independent state. In March, Jayewardene for the first time launched air raids against Tamil strongholds in the northern Jaffna Peninsula, but by the end of last month had halted the bombings...
...year-old bo tree said to have grown from a sapling of the tree under which Buddha found enlightenment, the guerrillas seemed almost eager to provoke retaliation. It did not take long. In the bloodiest strike, assailants boarded a ferry off the northern coast of Sri Lanka, near Jaffna, and hacked 39 Tamils to death with axes, swords and knives. The Sri Lankan navy has denied accusations that it was involved in the slaughter; the same day, police surprised Tamil rebels hiding in a cave in the Eastern province and killed 20 guerrillas...
...Lankan army, face to face, in conventional infantry warfare," says Athulathmudali. "How I wish they would. I am ready. The army is ready." That sentiment is not echoed by all Sri Lankan officers. "We do not have enough troops," says Brigadier Hamilton Wanasinghe, the military commander for the Jaffna peninsula. "We are building our strength, but it will take time...
...commission cited 74 instances over a period of five months of soldiers indiscriminately firing on civilians. The government's policy of offering a $200 prize for each Tiger killed has served only to incite further army abuses. "What is the government trying to achieve here in Jaffna?" a local newspaper asked. "Drive all the people into the arms of the militants...