European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - July 20, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Conflict in Par sri Lanka torn by ethnic strip r Trincomalee som in Check but patting try n part of an Effort to Stop army smuggling & to Riff militants. By Richard m. Weintraub Washington Post rom a sri lankan army helicopter the land below has All the appearance of an Island Paradise. Lush Green Rice paddies surrounded by neat dikes set out a Checkerboard pattern around villages in Jungle foliage. To the East Sandy beaches along the Bay of Bengal give Way to the deep sheltered Harbor at Trincomalee. As the helicopter dips lower however a different image emerges. Bridges along the coastal Road Are cratered damaged by tamil guerrilla explosives. Wide sections of housing once owned by tamils Are in ruins looted and destroyed by sinhalese mobs. Tourist resorts which once Nek Promise of economic uplift Are shells after guerrilla attacks. Trincomalee has become a new Battleground in the ethnic conflict in the Island nation that has seen an estimated 2,500 persons killed and wounded this year alone. It is an ethnic conflict in which sri Lanka s 16 million people Are divided into hostile and mutually suspicious Camps each seeing itself As a minority. As in the strife of Northern Ireland or the Middle East motives become so suspect that peace initiative As one begun in june by the sri lankan govern met with caution by tamils and sinhalese alike. Sri Lanka s violence is rooted deeply in the my the tamils who make up 18 percent of the Pood that they have suffered in jobs education land distribution and Justice at the hands of the 74 pal sinhalese majority. The remaining 8 percent of 8 Lanka s population is mostly eurasian and Modi while there Are divisions among the tamils or surface theirs is a classic Case of a minority that j believes it has been done wrong. The sinhalese too have the Outlook of a mind time and again the argument is heard we Are t million people alone in the world. No one else up language shares our culture. Who else is the Guj of our buddhism and Here we Are on a Small Isu staring North at so million  to the sinhalese it is not just the tamils of & Lanka who Are a threat but also those to the Norf India across the 18-mile palk Strait. A Small tamil insurgency mostly by youths wry believed politicians were no longer doing enough protect their rights began to shake sinhalese complacency in the mid-1970s, it grew in intensity in the Early 1980s, finally re Central America roots of conflict linked to poverty inequality by Joseph b. Frazier associated press he guerrillas Only tank Spray painted with slogans and bristling with jubilant rebels led a ragtag army through the streets of Managua. The rebels skirted the inter Continental hotel and burst into the abandoned Headquarters of deposed director Anastasio Somoza. Throughout the night gunfire rang out. But this time they were tiring their weapons in Celebration not combat. It was july 19,1979. The sandinista National liberation front had toppled the nicaraguan government. With a revolutionary government in Power Central America would never be the same again. In the ensuing seven years of often bloody confusion the Region changed from a Cluster of Safe military dictatorships to mostly fragile democracies. The revolution in Nicaragua coincided with hard times economically in All of Central America plus other mounting problems the military rulers increasingly realized they could not solve. In 1979, the presidency or real Power was in civilian hands Only in Costa Rica among the six Central american countries and Panama. Generals ruled the others. Today civilians mostly elected run them All although there is a ubiquitous military Shadow in some countries. In Guatemala especially the military has not been reluctant to kick one ruler out and put in another. The nicaraguan experience also inspired some guerrilla movements who saw the sandinista score the Only revolutionary Victory in latin America since Cuba 20 years earlier. Early leftist movements in Al Salvador patterned themselves after the sandinista and rebel activity increased throughout the Region for two or three years after the sandinista took Power. Today with the exception of Al Salvador the leftist insurgencies have virtually vanished or Are under control reduced to the nuisance level. Al Salvador and Nicaragua have the Only two serious insurgencies in the Region with Nicaragua s being rightist. Both governments see themselves As winning and appear in no hurry to negotiate settlements. For the most part Central America did not adapt gracefully to the change from military Rule. In Guatemala and Al Salvador rightist death squads murdered tens of thousands of civilians suspected of challenging the old order. In Nicaragua disillusionment with the new order and the feeling that a hard won revolution produced a second Cuba instead of a new Nicaragua fostered a United states backed counterrevolution that could be Gulf of Mexico Caribbean sea Honduras san Salvador Al Salvador Pacific Ocean 200 mites Costa Chicago Tribune map Panama Rica As bloody As the original fight before it is Over. In Panama the first elected president in nearly two decades was thrown out in a bloodless coup one of a rapid succession of leaders whose Fate was decided by a military that still Calls the shots. The rest of Central America has formed an unsigned Alliance against what the leaders see As an exporting of Nicaragua s revolution to their own countries. A three year attempt of the five countries to work out their own problems through the so called Contador group has done Little but buy time. Nicaragua citing the american backed revolution against the sandinista government says it cannot agree to reduce its 100.000-Man army at this time. The size of the nicaraguan army has worried its neighbors. If we cannot provide for our defense everything else we do is in jeopardy Alejandro Bendana a top level foreign ministry official said in a 1983 interview. Almost from the first Day of their Victory the sandinista warned of an american backed Effort to overthrow them. When the United states began openly supporting the contras it provided the  a credibility and the nation with a cohesiveness that it might not have had otherwise. J americans meanwhile have Learned How Little they know about the Cluster of countries to the South. Groups of congressmen visit for one or two Days but few see or even try to see anything except what is offered on a guided tour. J to Many Central America is a place of marimbas and j banana plantations of guitar music cheap shrimp and bargain Beach resorts. That s True. It s also a place of bitter poverty for most of those who live Here a place where Justice health education and a reasonable Hope for a better future Are within the grasp of Only a Lucky Tew. It s a Lovely place if you have Money which most people Don t. For the most part the problems of poverty and inequality wherein lie the roots of revolutionary movements Are unchanged. There remains in most of the countries a tiny Rich elite and the Laws and social structures designed to let i them stay that Way. Central America has come a Long Way in seven years but it has a Long Way to go. Human rights abuses Are on the decline. Right Wing Page 14 the stars and stripes