Sri Lanka government on track with five-year strategy to rehabilitate former LTTE combatants

The Sri Lankan government has launched a five-year strategy from 2008 to 2012 to disarm, demobilize and rehabilitate former LTTE combatants and successfully integrate them into their families and communities.

The government has so far identified 11,698 ex-combatants for rehabilitation.

Prison Reforms and Rehabilitation Minister D.E.W. Gunasekara has said that a total of 3,023 former LTTE combatants had been released from August 2009 to date following a three pronged approach of rehabilitating, prosecuting, or releasing.

According to Gunasekara, those released comprised university students, children, sick and disabled cadres, court ordered releases, expectant mothers with infants and youths with minor involvement with the LTTE.