500 child soldiers still in Lanka govt custody

Ex-Tamil Tigers attend a class in a state-run training centre in the northern town of Vavuniya on Wednesday. Nearly 300,000 of displaced Tamil minority people were housed in Vavuniya camps since mid-May when the government troops emerged victorious over Tamil Tigers.Photo: AFP

The Sri Lankan Government has claimed that it has 550 ex-child soldiers in its custody - and about half of them are being given the chance of education.
Officials say 273 former child combatants are currently attending the Ratmalana Hindu College near Colombo.
"Others are given vocational or technical training because their education has been interrupted for a long period," the commissioner general of rehabilitation, Major General Daya Ratnayake (Retired), told the BBC.
Before coming here, these former soldiers were kept in rehabilitation centres in Vavuniya, in northern Sri Lanka, and Ambepussa in the south.
"These students are very keen to learn. They don't want to talk about their past. They want to forget it. We understand that. We are trying to create a good atmosphere in the classroom and motivate them," one teacher said.
Students are provided with hostel accommodation, but not allowed to mingle with other students and are taught in separate classrooms.