Courtesy: SL Army

United Nations Children’s Education Fund (UNICEF) has extended its support for government’s rehabilitation programme for teenage Tiger cadres who entered then government- controlled areas during the recently-concluded LTTE war for separation.

Two UNICEF representatives, Ms. Natalie Grove, Emergency Child Protection specialist and Mr. Andrew Brooks, Section Head met Major General Jagath Jayasuriya, Commander, Security Forces Headquarters, Wanni on Wednesday (17) and pledged their support for intended rehabilitation programmes, and provision of more facilities to those underage LTTE cadres, many of whom have been forcibly abducted and conscripted to the LTTE and the entire training programme, being implemented by the government.

More than one hundred LTTE child soldiers, some of who had confessed their involvement and others who surrendered from Wanni, in the company of their adults are presently in Vavuniya, as the government’s programme for rehabilitation has already got underway with the help of child specialists, psychiatrists, educationalists and other respective experts.