COI Report March 2012 - UK Border Agency - Home Office
COI Report March 2012 - UK Border Agency - Home Office
COI Report March 2012 - UK Border Agency - Home Office
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7 MARCH <strong>2012</strong> SRI LANKA<br />
Country of Origin Information Service<br />
<strong>UK</strong> <strong>Border</strong> <strong>Agency</strong><br />
9 November 2011<br />
Dear colleague,<br />
Re: Rehabilitation and Reintegration of ex-LTTE Cadres in Sri Lanka<br />
The British High Commission in Colombo regularly monitors the treatment of ex-LTTE cadres in<br />
Sri Lanka and rehabilitation/reintegration programmes. This letter updates and replaces our<br />
previous letters on the same subject.<br />
On 4 th September 2009 the British High Commissioner and the Head of the International<br />
Organization for Migration (IOM) signed an agreement for approximately 17 million Sri Lankan<br />
Rupees (£94,000) of <strong>UK</strong> support towards the rehabilitation and reintegration of ex-combatants,<br />
in the presence of the Sri Lankan Minister of Justice. A press release by the High Commission<br />
stated, ―The <strong>UK</strong> fully supports efforts to ensure sustainable rehabilitation of former combatants.<br />
This will be critical to reconciliation efforts following the end of the war and will underpin a<br />
transition to sustainable peace‖. The British High Commission continues to support this<br />
programme.<br />
IOM state that initial reintegration programmes commenced in 2001 in the east of Sri Lanka.<br />
These had been funded by USAID and had targeted 300 ex-LTTE combatants and 300 ex- Sri<br />
Lankan Army combatants. The programme eventually reached 500 of these cadres and<br />
provided tools for many to carry out a trade, plus incorporated community reception and<br />
support. A private US contractor had provided the community aspect of the project and IOM<br />
addressed the needs of the individuals. Since then, programmes in the east had continued to do<br />
well, especially with the rehabilitation and reintegration of many cadres loyal to the TMVP (Tamil<br />
Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal or Karuna Group). This programme was conducted through the<br />
Ministry of Defence who provided lists of former TMVP cadres to the IOM office in Batticaloa.<br />
Technical support for the project was provided by the <strong>UK</strong> and IOM conducted a community<br />
perception survey to assess the impact these cadres would have within the local community.<br />
UNICEF has had a comprehensive community based rehabilitation programme for child excombatants<br />
which included a significant component on catch-up education and vocational<br />
training. This was provided by the UN Development Programme, World University Service of<br />
Canada and Save the Children. A relatively small number of these ex-combatants had<br />
subsequently gone abroad for employment in Korea and Malaysia, although this programme<br />
has now discontinued.<br />
In 2009 the Ministry of Disaster Management & Human Rights had already been in the process<br />
of compiling a document entitled the National Framework Proposal for Reintegration of Ex-<br />
Combatants into Civilian Life in Sri Lanka: (http://natlex.ilo.ch/wcmsp5/groups/public/---asia/---<br />
The main text of this <strong>COI</strong> <strong>Report</strong> contains the most up to date publicly available information as at 3 February <strong>2012</strong>.<br />
Further brief information on recent events and reports has been provided in the Latest News section<br />
to 2 <strong>March</strong> <strong>2012</strong>.<br />
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