factions of the LTTE, and tempers in eastern Sri Lanka are rising.

The government will grant amnesty to 70,000 deserters. These are the people who have left military service over the last 25 years. Technically, they could be prosecuted, but because military service was so unpopular, there rarely were prosecutions. Basically, the army conscripted troops and tried to convince them to stay in. In most cases, it worked, as less than ten percent of them deserted. During that same period, about 18,000 troops were killed in action. Currently,