Back to school

As reported in our lead story yesterday quoting President Mahinda Rajapaksa, some 40,000 children of school going age housed in IDP Centres, out of the 300,000 inmates, are being sent to school to pick up from where they left off when they were hoarded together and held as human shields by the LTTE in the waning days of the Tiger fiefdom. It also represents another facet of the gradual return to normalcy in the war ravaged peninsula.

The decision to allow those over 60 years of age to leave the IDP centres is also a welcome step also heralding the changing face of things.

One hopes that the normalization process would be accelerated so that these people could resume their normal lives in their own familiar environment before long. The Northern Spring program that is now proceeding apace no doubt will ensure the smooth transition of these hapless folk to their former lives with added quality.

Speaking at the felicitation ceremony to honour him as Commander-in-Chief, and that of the Three Forces on the second month marking the liberation of country from terrorism, in Mahiyangana on Saturday, the President also said that all children who previously carried arms in the North will not be prosecuted. Instead, they will be integrated into society after proper rehabilitation.

This line of thinking is only logical and justified since most of these children in their early teens were by and large forced conscripts and very often sent to the frontlines of battle as cannon fodder. One must remember that those members of JVP’s first uprising were granted amnesties after rehabilitation even though they were voluntary fighters in the rebellion.

The tales narrated by the many escapee child soldiers left no doubt as to their predicament. One could imagine the plight of these youth just in their first bloom, had the conflict allowed to prolong indefinitely. While Prabhakaran had his offspring educated abroad these hapless youth were virtually being condemned to die in battle against a powerful army of a State. They therefore deserve to be considered with sympathy and to be given all assistance to rehabilitate themselves and enter civil society.

Under the circumstances one fails to comprehend the silence that was maintained by our erstwhile Human Rights groups and those of their ilk who wax eloquent about children’s rights and the exploitation of minors. One cannot recall if these children were ever mentioned even in those seminars and workshops conducted in posh Five Star Hotels on the topic of child labour. For, weren’t these children under the burden of death with each passing day.

Neither were they of any consequences to those black band wearing vocal demonstrators at Lipton Circus who were so concerned about the human rights violations of the Sri Lankan Army. Nor did we hear any strong words of condemnation of the LTTE by those Sri Lanka watchers in the UN. This despite a firm assurance given by the LTTE to the visiting UN Rapporteur on Children in Armed Conflict Olara Otunu to release all child soldiers held under them.

Now that these unfortunate beings have been liberated from their agony every effort should be made to ensure they lead a normal life as far as possible.

True, the psychological scars of their ordeal would take time to heal.There will also be the initial suspicion of coming into contact with ‘strangers’. In short, a civilian life would be alien to them since they had been immersed in a gun culture from a very tender age. Hence it is important that they be put in charge of experts and professionals to guide them systematically out of their mindsets so that they may not relive their trauma.

As for the 40,000 schoolchildren, here too they should be provided with as a conducive environment as could obtain under the circumstances to ensure their education is not disrupted in any way. We have often repeated in these columns of the studious bent of the youth of the North.

It is therefore important that we make use of their potential for the future of the country as we did with their forebears in the past. For this, the Government would have to create the right environment not only in terms schools, buildings and infrastructure facilities but also to cultivate the right mindset to fit into their new environment in a post-war Sri Lanka.

President Rajapaksa would no doubt receive the enteral gratitude of the parents of these children for taking steps to restore their education which was rudely disrupted by the booming guns and bombs of the past.

For as mentioned before, education is high on the list priorities of the Northerner. They can now engage in their academic activities free of fear and tension thanks to the eradication of the single cause that created a hell on earth for them.