Lanka Army enlists 11 former LTTE members

At least 50 northern Tamil youth, including 11 former LTTE members, have been enlisted to serve the Sri Lanka Armys 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.
Among the recruits are 11 former LTTE members who had undergone rehabilitation.
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.