The World : Sri Lanka Plan Rejected

Sri Lanka’s main opposition party rejected a government-proposed plan to end the island’s bloody ethnic conflict. The decision by the Freedom Party came as President Junius R. Jayewardene prepared for a second round of talks with moderate Tamil politicians in Colombo, the capital. In the continuing violence, 18 Tamil guerrillas and six soldiers were killed in a clash in the northwest fishing district of Mannar. Sri Lanka’s minority Tamils seek anindependent state in the north and east of the island, where they outnumber the Sinhalese population.