Vavuniya: The girl-next-door
image hardly suggests that she was fighting for the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam just months back.
18-year-old Satiswari is now a happy woman after
undergoing tailoring orientation course at the rehabilitation
camp in this northern Sri Lankan town, where she is being
lodged since the end of the war in May 2009.
She is one of the hundreds of former LTTE cadres who
are being imparted training in various courses at
rehabilitation camps across northern Lanka.
Satiswari was arrested by the Sri Lankan army during
the last phase of the 30-year-old civil war for fighting for
the LTTE.
"I have undergone a tailoring orientation course," she
told journalists at the camp.
"I am married and my husband is in the adjoining
welfare camp. He was never part of the LTTE," she said.
The camp has imparted various training courses to 293
former LTTE cadres. After checking her previous records, the
authorities have decided to release Satiswari from the camp.
"I am looking forward to starting a new life,"
Satiswari, who hails from Mullivaikal in Wanni, said.
In all, more than 35 LTTE ex-combatants including
males detained in the Poonthotam detention camps in Vavuniya
are being released.
Vijitha Balabhawan, another former LTTE cadre, said
she too had almost completed her tailoring course.
"The officials and the security personnel treat us
properly and understand our efforts to come to the
mainstream," said Tharshini from Puthukudiyiruppu.
The instructors said the female cadres were forgetting
their past and getting interested in their work.
A senior official in charge of the rehabilitation
centre here said the authorities were still vigilant though
some of the cadres claimed they have been with the LTTE for
only a few months and that they were forcefully recruited.
He said the pattern showed that the girls joined
the group after the age of 12 and many of the former female
cadres undergoing the vocational courses were 17 and 18 years
of age respectively.
This suggested that some could have been with the
LTTE for much longer period, the official pointed out.
PTI
First Published: Friday, December 25, 2009, 13:28