Terrorist rehabilitation program, a model for other countries - Prof Rohan Gunaratna

by Uditha Kumarasinghe

International Terrorism Expert Prof. Rohan Gunaratna said that the Government’s terrorist rehabilitation program was a resounding success today and a model for other countries.

Prof. Gunaratna who delivered a special lecture, “India under Modi: A turning point in Indo-Lanka relations” at the Parliamentary Complex on Wednesday said the government had rehabilitated 11,800 LTTE cadres within four years.

No country has rehabilitated terrorists and integrated them into the mainstream society in such a short time. “Within four years, 11,800 LTTE cadres who were rehabilitated had returned to their homes. None of them returned to violence.”

He said Sri Lanka had six or seven rehabilitation programs for LTTE cadres such as education, religious, vocational, social and family, psychological and reintegration. Sri Lanka did an excellent job in rehabilitating those LTTE cadres and none of them went back to terrorism.

Prof. Gunaratna said the Government had several important phases in its military operations against LTTE terrorists. One was the military phase where the LTTE was dismantled. The second was its humanitarian phase of the resettlement of nearly 300,000 displaced persons. The other was the demining.

The socio-economic phase was another important aspect. When the rest of the country had seven percent economic growth, the economy of the North grew at 22 percent. Priority should be always given for the physical infrastructure development.

The economy of the North cannot be improved without putting physical infrastructure in place. The Government and the private sector should play a crucial role to link the North to the South socially, economically, politically and psychosocially, he said.