Former Tamil Tiger rebels taste freedom after 16 months

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Former Finance Adviser to the Caretaker government Dr AB Mirza Azizul Islam, former Director General (South Asia Region) of Asian Development Bank Sultan Hafeez Rahman and former Power Secretary and Chairman of Keystone Dr M Fouzul Kabir Khan seen at a ce

In a rare interview, a former member of Sri Lanka's defeated Tamil Tiger (LTTE) rebels has been speaking to the BBC about his feelings on being released from 16 months of government detention and rehabilitation programmes, reports BBC.
Dr Kumarasamy Muralitharan was one of 400 former LTTE members, or suspected ex-members, who were the latest batch to be freed in northern Sri Lanka after being inmates in special military-run camps.
He was a registered member and "full supporter" of the separatist group, having trained in their medical colleges and served in their medical wing for 20 years.
He said he had never fought and, as a medic, abhorred violence.
But, he said, the LTTE was in search of a homeland for Sri Lankan Tamils.
Dr Kumarasamy spoke as more than 1,000 ex-LTTE fighters or members and their parents, spouses and children gathered in a hall in Vavuniya for the release ceremony.
Human rights campaigners condemn the mass detention as an illegal form of collective punishment, and are outraged that the International Committee of the Red Cross is denied access to them.
The government says it is treating the former insurgents humanely and that it will not "bow down to foreign powers" and change the system.
It was strange to think that this courteous father-of-four with excellent English had been part of the feared rebel group whose leaders were wiped out by the Sri Lankan military at the close of the war.
Dr Kumarasamy said he worked amid the trauma of the war zone in the final months, treating both "LTTE cadres and most of the public" and working alongside government medics in the Putumattalan hospital amid "the shelling and everything... also the gunshots".
Since handing himself in to the Sri Lankan military he had undergone what the government terms rehabilitation, with training in meditation, carpentry, farming, English and computer studies.