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During his tenure as India`s High Commissioner in Sri Lanka, Ambassador Mehrotra found the country bitterly torn by the conflict between its Sinhala majority and sizeable Tamil minority. My Days in Sri Lanka, touches on th ancient beginnings of that conflict, briefly follows on its evolution during the last century until it reached its peak in the 1980s, and then takes us in detail through the author`s own experiences there nearly two year after the 1987 Indo-Sri Lanka Peace Agreement was signed and the Indian Peace Keeping Force had been inducted.
LTTE was fighting the IPKF tooth and nail instead of surrendering arms while President Premadasa considered the presence of an Indian Military Contingent on his nation`s soil as an affront to its sovereignty, issued ultimatums for it to quit, threatened military action against it if it did not by 29th July 1989 and brought the two nations to the brink of a military disaster.
High Commissioner`s intensive consultations with the political wizards of Sri Lanka, the warring factions in the country`s Northeast, and the governments in New Delhi and Colombo from their highest level down helped bring the two sides to the negotiating table with the signing of the 28th July Joint Communique. After protracted negotiations between the two governments, IPKF`s phased deinduction was completed in March 1990 with due recognition on Sri Lanka`s part of its sacrifices to preserve the unity and integrity of Sri Lanka.
It is history that the never been told before.
ISBN - 9788124116142
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Pages : 254
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