UN agency, Lanka officials confirm LTTE child rebels have gone home

COLOMBO - All former underage Tamil Tiger rebels have reportedly returned to their families and communities.

The BBC quoted Sri Lankan officials as saying that a United Nations agency has confirmed the closure of both facilities that housed children who had been involved with the separatists till May of last year.ince the war ended, the government has been holding around 10,000 former Tamil Tiger members or fighters. They were captured or surrendered and screened off from ordinary civilians.

The circumstances are controversial because they have been kept at irregular facilities without charge.

A total of 566 of them were 17 years old or younger when detained.

The government says it has given them a complete course of educational or vocational training which will help them catch up with their fellow citizens.

The military official in charge of rehabilitation told the BBC he was “very happy” with their progress and that the schooling facility for them in Colombo had now closed, weeks after the vocational centre housing the other children also shut down. (ANI)