A worthy effort

According to a report we carried in our inside pages yesterday 44 ex-LTTE combatants who are undergoing rehabilitation at a centre in Tellipalai, Jaffna are in high spirits and happy with their treatment.

Included in the programme are visits by religious leaders to the Centre for counselling and other measures to induct them into a livelihood that would one day enable them to enter society and be accepted as worthy citizens.

While it may take time for these once hardcore LTTE fighters to shake themselves off their brutalised psyche the effort is a truly worthy exercise given that these unfortunate youth had no say or choice in their predicament. According to the report these hapless youth were following the diktats of the senior LTTE cadres under pain of death.

There maybe many others of their ilk who are similarly trapped and waiting for an opportunity to break free. The recent spate of defections by LTTE child soldiers is a clear indication of this that also provides a sample of the life behind the iron curtain.

Most of these youth may have not experienced parental love, the warmth of a family or the innocence of childhood. Therefore it is vital that all these aspects are taken into account in the rehabilitation programme so that their transformation would be a wholesome one.

While restoring their lives to the levels of normality, measures should also be taken for their gradual interaction with the outside world through suitable schemes.

Major General G.A. Chandrasiri, Commander of the Jaffna Security Forces Headquarters on whose initiative the programme was launched should be commended not only for his noble deed but also for demonstrating to the Tamil community that they were not the targets of the Forces' offensives.

The rehabilitation programme ideally should encompass those features and aspects that open the detainees to a world they were hitherto hidden from. The process of course should be a gradual one that would enable these youth to absorb the new life.

It is hoped that more and more such youth who were forced to join the terrorist outfit would venture to be rehabilitated in this fashion and experience the joys of a new life away from the risks and dangers of their present hellhole.

An inspiring victory

Lankan cricket fans no doubt would rise to a man in toasting our gallant cricketers who chalked up their first Test victory against the West Indies in the West Indies.

Mahela and his boys no doubt have brought honour and glory to the country by this epoch making feat given the romance and legend associated with West Indian cricket.

Sri Lanka has now only to chalk up an away victory against Australia, South Africa and India. It is the fervent hope of all Lankan cricket fans that this would be achieved in the not too distant future.

True, the present crop of Caribbean cricketers are only a pale shadow of the giants of the past though certainly no pushovers. But the historical significance of the victory cannot be belittled or devalued for this reason alone.

There was a time when West Indian cricket conjured up visions of awe and invincibility and cricket fans were glued to their transistors lapping up the exploits of the Weeks, the Worrels and the Sobers who were larger than life figures who adorned the cricket scrap books of the aficionados.

Local fans at the time were also yearning with high expectancy for the rare arrival of a West Indian team on our soil and enjoyed to the hilt the calypso fare dished out by the all conquering Caribbean outfits.

That was also the time West Indian cricket ruled the waves and Ceylon as we were then known was not even on the radar of the world cricketing map and had to be content with whistle stop tours by the established foreign teams.

Who would have believed at the time that one day Sri Lanka would not only beat the Windies (We have already done this on home soil) but beard the lion in it's own den.

The victory is also significant in that it was achieved with a new look outfit. It could be the turning point in the country's cricketing fortunes with the old order yielding to the new. It is hoped we continue in the same vein and strive for the frontiers yet unconquered making Sri Lanka a shining beacon in the world cricketing firmament.