Sri Lanka organizes special job fair for ex-rebels

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Sri Lanka organizes special job fair for ex-rebelsSunday, September 26, 2010 12:21 PM

COLOMBO, Sep. 26, 2010 (Xinhua News Agency) -- The Sri Lankan government has organized a special job fair in the northern town of Vavuniya for former Tamil Tiger rebels who have been rehabilitated and undergone vocational training, a senior government official said on Sunday.
Vijithamuni Zoysa, deputy minister of Rehabilitation and Prison Reforms said over 25 private sector organizations from various fields such as garments and construction would participate in the job fair held on Wednesday and Thursday in Vavuniya, about 260 km north from the capital Colombo.
Over 11,000 cadres of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam ( LTTE) surrendered to the security forces during the final phase of civil war between the government forces and the LTTE which had been fighting for a separate Tamil homeland in Sri Lanka's Northern and Eastern provinces for more than two decades.
They have been rehabilitated and undergone a vocational training at 12 rehabilitation centers run by the government from May 2009.
Zoysa said 418 rehabilitated cadres would be released at a ceremony organized parallel to the job fair in Pompemadu rehabilitation center in Vavuniya.
The government expects to release over 2,000 rehabilitated former rebels in October and the number of former rebels in rehabilitation centers would be reduced to 5,000 after the release.