Sri Lanka Army recruits 11 ex-LTTE cadres; will be deployed for agricultural work

At least 50 northern Tamil youth, including 11 former LTTE members, have been enlisted to serve the Sri Lanka Army’s volunteer force, the military spokesman said today.

They will not be wearing the military uniforms, but would be entitled to pension and other related benefits, military spokesman Brigadier Sumith Atapattu said, adding that they will be deployed for agricultural work carried out by the Army.

At the end of the three-decade-old separatist war, around 11,000 LTTE cadres had turned themselves over to the Army.

The process of rehabilitation saw them learning life skills in addition to English language training.

Atapattu said there will be more Tamil youth recruited to the military in the near future.

The Tamil youth claimed discrimination in education and opportunities by the majority Sinhala community rule as a reason for them to demand a separate Tamil homeland in the north and east of the island.

In 2009, LTTE chief who led a bloody movement for over three decades for a separate Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka was killed by the army ending a saga of militancy that devoured over 70,000 lives, including a score of Tamil and Sinhalese leaders besides Rajiv Gandhi.

Prabhakaran, 54, was shot dead by Sri Lankan special forces as he tried to stage a dramatic breakout from the army encirclement, a military spokesman said.

"We have successfully ended the war," defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa told the president in a nationally-televised ceremony.

"Now the entire country is declared rid of terrorism," Army Chief Lt Gen Sarath Fonseka said declaring an end to all combat operations in the northern war zone.

The news of Prabhakaran's death also came along with reports of bodies of his son Charles Anthony and three other top leaders -- Pottu Amman, Soosai and Nadesan being found.