South Asia 29 July 2011
Many former rebels find it difficult to let go of the past
Former Tamil Tiger (LTTE) rebels in Sri Lanka say they cannot find jobs or reintegrate into society, a year after they were freed from government "rehabilitation" and detention camps.
In a series of exclusive interviews with the BBC, some also said they were being harassed by the security forces, though others were being left alone. After the LTTE were defeated in 2009, more than 11,000 former militants or alleged militants were taken to the special camps after being screened off from civilian war refugees. A few thousand remain inside but more than half have been released, in phases, and gone home.
In Jaffna I called on Kumarasamy Muralitharan, nine months after I met him on his release.
He is an ex-LTTE doctor who was trained in the militants' medical colleges and served for 20 years in their medical wing. When I met him in October he wondered nervously whether his qualifications would get him a job as a doctor in post-war Sri Lanka, and whether he would be accepted by society.
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Sri Lanka's ethnic polarisation persists strongly despite peace
* Tamils say uncomfortable with post-war reconciliation
* Poll results show old ethnic divisions still strong
* Rajapaksa drags political solution
By Shihar Aneez
JAFFNA, Sri Lanka, July 29 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's old war zone has been at peace for two years but the minority Tamils who populate it say they are hungry for jobs, despite the economic revival the government has offered instead of the political powers for which Tamils first took up arms.
In Sri Lanka's north and east, people last week voted for the first time in at least 12 years and as many as 29 to elect local councils, two years after the military wiped out the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to end a 25-year war Full Story>>>
