Sri Lanka Tamil party to involve former LTTE cadres in party work

A dominant party of Sri Lanka’s Tamil National Alliance will involve rehabilitated LTTE cadres in party work as part of a bid to integrate them into the society.     

The leaders of Ilankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK) yesterday held a meeting and discussed the ex-LTTE cadres’ rehabilitation issues.     

“The ITAK has agreed to obtain their assistance for the party’s political work,” party spokesman M A Sumanthiran said after the meeting.     ‘

In the meeting, the party leaders pointed out that rehabilitated LTTE cadres were unable to find jobs due to their past association with the militant group, which led a bloody armed campaign over three decades to carve out a separate Tamil homeland.     

The party recognises the need to fully integrate rehabilitated LTTE cadres into the society.     

About 11,000 ex-LTTE cadres have gone through governments rehabilitation programme since the three-decade- long armed conflict ended in May 2009 with the defeat of the LTTE.     

They were those who gave themselves up to the government troops during the last phase. They were given life skills and English language training while in rehabilitation.     

Some of them were also given self-employment loans. Yet a majority of them are unemployed.     

A group of them contested the 2015 parliamentary election but failed to win representation.

-NIE
-Agencies