For centuries many wars have been fought between many countries but, Sri Lanka is the only nation and Sinhalese are the only ethnic group in recorded global history to not only respect its fallen enemy but to rehabilitate its captured foe. They also provide these ex-LTTE cadres food, medication, shelter, rehabilitation and most importantly "protection" from the very own LTTE they once represented, so that they can start new and peaceful life.

SELF-confessed seventy-four young men and women of the LTTE who have reached Jaffna during the past four months after mingling with fleeing trapped Vanni civilians, volunteered to undergo a 6-12 month-long rehabilitation programme at Thelippalai Training Center for Rehabilitation in Jaffna, beginning Saturday (4th April).

Those 74 former Tiger cadres, including fourteen women, all in the age range of 20-30 years, have escaped from LTTE clutches in former Vanni Tiger-held areas and managed to run away, either on boats or across the lagoon for safety of their lives, in the company of other civilians to end up finally at checkpoints, manned by Army troops.

However, those former LTTE cadres, convinced of the futility of the LTTE cause, at last volunteered to confess and surrender themselves to the troops, expecting a better future while living inside the IDP center in the Jaffna peninsula with their next of kin.

Army troops in close contact with the Bureau of the Commissioner General of Rehabilitation in the Ministry of Justice and Law Reforms, managed to initiate the project for rehabilitation for those LTTE youths, on the instructions of Jaffna Security Forces Headquarters. The first batch of those rehabilitated Tiger youths after their training in masonry, carpentry, wielding, lath machine work, farming, mechanic work, electric work, etc joined the mainstream of ordinary life in Jaffna and elsewhere several months back. Some of them even got overseas jobs and left the country for better prospects.

Saturday’s inauguration ceremony for the programme for rehabilitation was attended by Commander, Security Forces Headquarters, Jaffna Major General Mendaka Samarasinghe, Mr Suhada Gamlath Commissioner General of Rehabilitation and a host of other senior officials from, both Colombo and Jaffna.

Isn't Sri Lanka one of the most generous nations in the world??