The World - News from Feb. 20, 1989

A new Sri Lankan group calling itself the “Black Cats” executed 20 Sinhalese in the first major violence since election results were announced last week, military officials said. The victims were members of the People’s Liberation Front, an ultranationalist Sinhalese militant group that opposes the Sinhalese-dominated government’s attempts to grant limited autonomy to minority Tamils. At least 1,000 people, including 14 candidates for the legislature, were killed during the five-week election campaign that ended Wednesday. Most of the deaths were blamed on the People’s Liberation Front.