Sri Lanka President Ready to Sign Pact Ending Revolt

President Junius R. Jayewardene said Saturday that he will sign an accord with Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi that will bring an end to the island’s Tamil rebellion.

“I am signing an agreement with Rajiv Gandhi next Wednesday and terrorism will end on Monday,” Jayewardene said.

The ruling United National Party on Saturday endorsed the plan providing for a provisional merger of the nation’s strife-torn, Tamil-dominated northern and eastern provinces after Jayewardene and senior ministers disclosed details.

“The only concession Sri Lanka will have to make to stop the killing and destruction the crisis had wrought, is to agree to a temporary merger of the northern and eastern provinces,” he told the party.

Referendum to Be Held

Under the plan Jayewardene announced, Sri Lanka will hold a referendum within a year in which the residents of the provinces would be able to decide whether they should remain as a single unit with the northern province.

“We support the wise path of peaceful negotiation and fully endorse the steps being taken by the government to solve the problem,” the executive committee said in a resolution.

Jayewardene said guerrilla leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and other rebels would have to surrender their arms to Sri Lankan authorities within a week of the signing.

6,000 Lives

Officials sources said Gandhi will fly to Colombo for a visit of about 24 hours to conclude the deal to end the conflict, which has claimed 6,000 lives so far.

In New Delhi, a Foreign Office spokesman said Gandhi was to meet with Prabhakaran there Saturday night or today to discuss the plan. Political analysts said Gandhi is expected to persuade Prabhakaran to accept it.

Prabhakaran, leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the most powerful rebel group, was flown to India from his hide-out in northern Sri Lanka by an Indian air force helicopter Friday.

Other Tamil leaders living in exile in Madras, capital of southern India’s Tamil Nadu state, had responded favorably, reports from India said.

The guerrillas have been fighting to set up an independent state for Tamils in the north and east.

India, home to 50 million Tamils, has actively mediated in a bid to end the conflict, and the new offer has apparently received New Delhi’s full backing.