http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20100526_01
Child soldiers return home
GIVEN OPPORTUNITY TO RESUME NORMAL LIVES:
The last batch of rehabilitated LTTE child soldiers, 108 boys and 90 girls were handed over to their parents yesterday by the Rehabilitation Authority, Commissioner General of Rehabilitation Brigadier Sudantha Ranasinghe told Daily News yesterday.
They were minors between the ages of 12 years to 17 years. So we had to hand them over to their parents legally through the legal court procedure. Government child probation officers, Social Services Department officers and relevant Divisional Secretaries were also present at the Vavuniya Magistrate's Courts when the children were handed back to their parents. All the children were given certificates, he explained.
"It was the wish of President Mahinda Rajapaksa that all ex-child soldiers of the terrorist group should be rehabilitated and given the opportunity to go back to their parents to resume normal lives," he noted. "These children were rehabilitated at the Hindu College, Ratmalana and they enjoyed life with us. These innocent children were forcibly conscripted to the terrorist movement by the terrorist leaders but now they are reformed as normal children again," he said.
"They played cricket, participated in camp fires, did scouting and learned a lot of other skills like any other child would learn in a Colombo school. They even went to the Mc Donalds and enjoyed meals," Brigadier Ranasinghe added.
These helpless victims of the war were pardoned by President Mahinda Rajapaksa and given all the facilities to train them and bring them back to the normal civil life. Even after they go back to their native places they would go back to their schools and continue studies, like other children of their hometowns or villages," he explained.
"We had a farewell party for the children. Not only the children, but, my daughter also cried when they departed. But I am happy because this is a beginning of a new era for these children who have now much hope for the future," he noted.
There were 294 child soldiers and we had released 96 children back to their parents earlier," he said.
Courtesy : Daily News
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