National framework proposal on reintegration of ex-combatants

The Disaster Management and Human Rights Ministry has adopted a National Framework Proposal on Reintegration of Ex-Combatants into Civilian Life in Sri Lanka, Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said at a workshop held to introduce the National Framework at the Cinnamon Grand Colombo yesterday.

The process of rehabilitation and reintegration of ex-combatants was not started after May 19 but long time ago in 2005. A 10 year road map was designed to face the challenges of post conflict under the leadership of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, the Minister said.

"In fact it was the President who had foreseen the necessity of bringing back to civil sociey the former combatants after their rehabilitation long before terrorism was defeated.

The reconciliation program had begun and it was time now to forgive and forget and give them a chance to look forward to a better future as Sri Lankan citizens. They should and never have to face such a catastrophe again in the future", Minister Samarasinghe said in his opening remarks at the workshop.

"Throughout the conflict, international cooperation and understanding the problem Sri Lanka was forthcoming and the key players in this exercise were the ILO and other international bodies that were prepared to assist us in the process of bringing back the ex-combatants to normal society. Following a series of discussions with diverse stakeholders we were able to develop a national framework to reintegrate civilians into civilian life", he said.

"Though we were addressing the issue of rehabilitation of ex-combatants in our conversations with them, their first choice was to be reunited with their families but as one could understand it was not possible to do so immediately as the ex-combatants had suffered various psychological and emotional problems.

Therefore to address those complex challenges we had adopted the international best practices but with a homegrown method of rehabilitation."