India, Sri Lanka Sign Pact but Opponents Riot
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COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — India and Sri Lanka today signed an accord intended to end Sri Lanka’s 4-year-old ethnic civil war, but opponents to the pact rioted across the nation. Fifteen people were reported killed.
Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Sri Lankan President Junius R. Jayewardene signed the agreement in a ceremony at the Presidential Palace in the center of the capital.
The accord was not signed, however, by any representative of the Tamil rebels. They have been fighting the Sinhalese-dominated government to gain a Tamil homeland in the island’s Northern and Eastern provinces, where most of the Tamils live.
Gandhi told a news conference after the signing ceremony: “We shall scrupulously fulfill the obligations” of the peace pact, which would set up a single provincial council to govern the two provinces and give amnesty to the rebels.
Violent protests by members of the majority Sinhalese community broke out in Colombo for a second day and spread today to other southern cities. Many Sinhalese believe that the pact makes too many concessions to the Tamils.
Police opened fire on crowds at several sites to disperse mobs. At least 15 people were killed.
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