Rehabilitated Tamil rebels gain university admission in Sri Lanka

COLOMBO - At least 40 former Tamil rebels have gained entry to universities after completing their schooling while undergoing rehabilitation, a local newspaper said Monday.

Rehabilitation Commissioner General Brigiader Sudantha Ranasinghe said the rebels had forcibly recruited the students and they had to interrupt their education, the state-run Daily News said.

“Two of them will be selected to the medical faculty of the universities,” Ranasinghe said.

He said that under rehabilitation programmes for former rebels of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) they were allowed to continue their education and sit the public exam to qualify for state universities.

Some 10,000 rebels surrendered or were arrested in the final stages of the civil war that ended in May 2009.

Rebels used children ranging from 12 years upwards in their 26-year fight for an independent homeland for minority Tamils.