Former Tamil child soldiers to continue education in Sri Lanka

Oct 21, 2009, 12:00 GMT

   Colombo - Former child soldiers in the Tamil rebel movement now in custody of the government after the rebels' defeat earlier this year are to carry on with their education in Sri Lanka's capital, Justice Ministry officials said Wednesday.

   The first batch of 168 students, including 76 females, arrived in the capital from their rehabilitation centres in the north to resume their disrupted education, officials said.

   The former soldiers, some of whom had weapons training and fought the Sri Lankan security forces, will be enrolled in a popular Tamil- language school on the outskirts of Colombo where they will sit side-by-side with other students in class.

   The students, aged 13 to 19, had their education interrupted at various stages, with some of them not attending school for more than five years.

   The ex-combatants have so far undergone general rehabilitation at one of the camps in the north and at another camp closer to the capital.

   A second batch of 100 more former child soldiers is also due to be allowed carry on their education.

   At present 10,000 former rebels are in custody and the government is looking into various programmes to rehabilitate most of them, but some others will be tried in the courts.

   Government forces fought the defeated the rebels of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam after the entire leadership was killed on May 19.