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Lanka enrolls former LTTEs for civil defence

Sri Lanka will enroll over 1,000 former members of the LTTE, who have successfully completed rehabilitation to the country's civil defence force [CDF], officials said on Sunday.

An official campaign was held on Saturday in the former LTTE stronghold of Kilinochchi in the north of the island nation, where over 2000 applications were distributed among the former LTTE members.

Those who received the applications are the ones who have gone through the government's rehabilitation programme since the conflict ended in May 2009.

Some 11,000 former LTTE members underwent rehabilitation. Officials said, that over 1,000 could be recruited to the CDF by mid-July.

The CDF was set up as an auxiliary force to assist government troops during the decades-old military campaign carried out against the LTTE.

They were initially deployed to protect the Sinhala majority villages adjacent to the north and east borders from LTTE attacks.

The LTTE carried out many massacres of civilians from these villages. The recruitment to the CDF would come closely on the heels of recruiting Tamil speaking as second lieutenants to the national cadet corps last week.
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