(Text and pictures by Michael Hardy and Nimanthi Perera-Rajasingham)

As you walk between the rows of neatly-made bunk beds, with their colourful sheets, stuffed animals, and clothes hung up to dry, it’s hard to imagine that the children who sleep here were fighting for the LTTE less than a year ago. These children - boys and girls aged 13-18 - were forcibly conscripted by the Tamil Tigers during the final, desperate months of Eelam War IV, when the Tigers sent wave after wave of poorly-trained children against the advancing Sri Lanka Army.


273 survivors of those final months are now living at Hindu College in Ratmalana, where the government has established a rehabilitation center and school for former child soldiers. Another 293 children - those who have been out of school too long to resume their formal education - are receiving vocational training in Poonthottam and Ambepussa. A military officer in charge of the programme said that, compared to the children’s lives in the north, Hindu College is the height of luxury.


“We have children who are sleeping on a bed for the first time - we have to teach them how to make their bed,” the officer said. “We have children who have never turned on an electric light before.”


The children arrived in Ratmalana three weeks ago, carried by bus from the Vavuniya IDP camps where they have lived since the war ended. They are the lucky ones, the ones who escaped death or dismemberment on the front lines of the LTTE’s last stand. Now they spend their days in the classroom or on the pitch, learning how to be normal again.


Although the rehabilitation programme is a joint operation between the Ministry of Justice and Law Reforms and the Ministry of Defence, the military officers overseeing the children always dress in civilian clothing so that Hindu College won’t look like a military base.


“We consider these children victims, even if some of them joined the LTTE willingly,” the officers said. “We don’t hold that against them.”


Bloody history


The history of LTTE child soldiers is a gruesome one, not only because the LTTE relied so heavily on forced recruitment, but also because civil organisations, international organisations and the government were unable to stop this practice. The issue became publicly visible in the aftermath of the Karuna-LTTE split in March 2004. When the Karuna faction was routed in the battle between the LTTE and the newly-formed TMVP, nearly 3,000 children were released, flooding the streets of Batticaloa as they tried to find their way home.


In the battle’s aftermath, both the LTTE and the TMVP competed to re-recruit these child soldiers. While various organisations attempted to reintegrate the children into civilian life, few could protect them from the two groups. Many children were retaken despite their parents’ attempts to hide them. At the time, the government claimed it was unable to act. When Eelam War IV broke out the children were forced to fight the final battle.


The situation for the children at Hindu College - many of them from the Wanni area - is quite different. Protected by the police and cared for by the Hindu College staff, the children now have a safe place to resume their lives. Officials said that the children were brought to Colombo so they could have better facilities and teachers. The programme will last a year, during which the children will take remedial classes to make up for the months or years of school they have missed. Although they share staff and facilities with the 600 day students of Hindu College, the former child soldiers are housed separately and have little interaction with their peers.


How were these 273 children selected to attend the rehabilitation programme? The military officer said that most of the children had been peripheral to the LTTE - many had performed menial jobs like kitchen duty, and many others had only been in the LTTE for a short time before escaping. As opposed to the children assigned to the vocational training programme, these children hadn’t missed much school and would have an easier time catching up. Few of the children were injured in the fighting. We were told that there was one child who had shrapnel in his eye, one who had a slight arm disability and several who used crutches.


“After the war was over, we had about 11,000 cadres - men, women, and children,” said Major General Daya Ratnayake, the Commissioner General of the rehabilitation programme. “The government decided to transform these people into responsible citizens, and we gave first priority to the children.”


But when you consider how the children were selected, it becomes clear that those who were most affected by the war were left behind in the IDP camps. Why are children who seem to need the least help - those who spent the least time in the LTTE, didn’t fight on the front lines, and weren’t injured - receiving the most attention? Is the government showcasing this rehabilitation programme to convey an unrealistic impression to the national and international community?


In a striking contrast to Menik Farm, the government is only too happy to grant journalists and outsiders access to Hindu College. In fact, the military officer worried aloud that the children had been visited so many times that they were starting to think of themselves as celebrities.


A difficult process


Reintegrating former child soldiers is no easy task. In the past, ex-LTTE cadres have been ostracized and singled-out in their schools, often by the parents of other children. Girls, especially, have been ashamed to go out in public because of their short hair - a requirement for all LTTE women. Often these children cannot catch up without special support, and their regular schools lack facilities for extra tutoring. In some instances, young girls have been married off by parents who believe this the best way to keep them secure and return them to civilian life.


For at least one year, the children at Hindu College won’t have to face these problems. Because they are housed together they can support each other. Once they have adjusted to their new home, the administration plans to take them on trips to popular spots in Colombo. This weekend the first group of parents will visit Hindu College. With a group of parents visiting each weekend (on bus trips funded by UNICEF), every child should be able to see his or her parents about once a month.


This much is clear: whatever the logic of those in power, the children themselves seem well cared for. In a country where Tamils from Vavuniya have few options, the opportunities offered to these children are a welcome change. The officials at Hindu College seem genuinely fond of the children and sincere in their effort to rehabilitate them. There are projects underway for new toilets, new dining facilities and more spacious dormitories. The children are taught English and Sinhalese, have regular health checks, do yoga on Sunday mornings, have access to a temple on the premises, and have a priest to visit the Christian children.
“They are very thirsty to learn,” the military officer said. “They have been out of school so long that they have to get used to the classroom again.”