Lanka to recruit rehabilitated ex-LTTE men into civil defence

 (PTI) Sri Lanka will enroll over 1,000 former members of the LTTE, who have successfully completed rehabilitation to the country’s civil defence force (CDF), officials said.

An official campaign was held yesterday in the former LTTE stronghold of Kilinochchi in the north of the island nation, where over 2000 applications were distributed among the former LTTE members.

Those who received the applications are the ones who have gone through the government’s rehabilitation program since the conflict ended in May 2009.

Some 11,000 former LTTE members underwent rehabilitation. Officials said that over 1,000 could be recruited to the CDF by mid July.

The CDF was set up as an auxiliary force to assist the government troops during the decades-old military campaign carried out against the LTTE. They were initially deployed to protect the Sinhala majority villages adjacent to the north and east borders from LTTE attacks. The LTTE carried out many massacres of civilians from these villages.

The recruitment to the CDF would come closely on the heels of recruiting Tamil speaking as second lieutenants to the national cadet corps last week.