Colombo, Sep 29 (DPA) The Sri Lankan government is set to release Thursday over 400 former Tamil rebels who have undergone rehabilitation from detention camps in the north of the country, a military spokesman said Wednesday.
An official ceremony to mark their release is to take place in Vavuniya, 240 km north of the capital Colombo, where two detention facilities are located.
The 400 are among around 8,000 former Tamil rebels in detention countrywide. Most had been fighting government troops in a decades-old conflict before being defeated in May last year.
Their release was approved by the army, which has been running the rehabilitation programme, under which carpentry, masonry, motor mechanics and sewing is taught. Some have already passed job interviews.
The government has not specified a time frame for the release of those undergoing rehabilitation.
According to the chief government administrator for the Vavuniya district, P.H.S. Charles, any detainee selected for employment would be released under the programme.
Job interviews were held in two detention camps in Vavuniya, where some 4,000 former rebels are being held. Another 4,000 are housed in detention camps elsewhere in the country.
Earlier this week, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), accused Sri Lanka of holding suspected rebels for months without trial.
The watchdog on detainees called on the UN and donors should urge Colombo to improve its human rights situation.
More than 10,000 former Tamil rebels surrendered to the government forces in the final phase of the conflict in 2009. The process of releasing ex-combatants or filing charges against them has been slow.
