'All detained ex-LTTE fighters to be released next year'
All the former LTTE fighters, who were detained following the end of a three-decade civil war in 2009, will be released next year, a top official has said.
The last remaining group of 700 former Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) cadres will be released by mid-2012 after providing them the mandatory 12 months training, said A. Dissanayaka, the Secretary for the Ministry of Rehabilitation and Prison Reforms.
The former combatants are being given training in vocational skills under the supervision of the Sri Lankan military so that they can earn their livelihood once released.
"They will be given training in 20 different fields and once reintegrated into the society they can obtain self-employment loans up to Rs250,000," he was quoted as saying by Sri Lankan online newspaper Colombopage.
Over hundred former LTTE women cadres, who were members of the last group of around 700 remaining ex-Tamil Tiger rebels, visited the Sri Lankan parliament last week before being reintegrated into society after undergoing one-year rehabilitation programme, the report said.
During and immediately after the final phase of the ethnic conflict, 11,700 LTTE cadres surrendered to the Lankan military. The government has allocated Rs 750 million to fund the rehabilitation process for the current financial year. According to the government, it has spent Rs 2.5 billion on the rehabilitation of the former Tamil Tiger combatants following the end of the civil war in May 2009.
The LTTE waged a bloody three-decade civil war for a separate state for the Tamils of Sri Lanka, alleging discrimination against the minority community at the hands of the majority Sinhalas. The Lankan military crushed the rebels and ended the ethnic conflict that killed between 80,000 and 100,000 people. The government has launched negotiations with the representatives of the Sri Lankan Tamils to fulfil the political aspirations of the minority community.
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