Colombo – The Sri Lanka Country Director of USAID and Sri Lanka's Commissioner General for Rehabilitation today handed over equipment to help over 550 former Tamil Tiger combatants to start new civilian jobs in eastern Sri Lanka.

The handover in Batticaloa, which included canoes, pumps, engines and tool kits for rice paddy cultivation and fishing, was part of a USAID-funded IOM pilot project to help reintegrate the demobilized former rebels into civilian life.

The Information, Counseling and Referral Services (ICRS) project aims to reintegrate up to 1,000 former members of the armed Tamil groups LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) and TMVP (Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikel).

"Reintegrating former combatants into society, retraining them and helping them to find jobs and generate income, is not easy, but is an essential first step towards stabilization, peace and economic recovery," says IOM Sri Lanka Chief of Mission Mohammed Abdiker.

Speaking at the handover ceremony, USAID Sri Lanka Director Rebecca Cohn said, "I want to congratulate the individuals who are here with us today for the important step you have taken in your lives. We applaud your courage and wish you success, knowing that this can have a powerful confidence-building effect for the much larger numbers we hope will embark on a similar journey in the weeks and months ahead."

Commissioner General for Rehabilitation Brigadier Sudantha Ranasinghe, speaking at the ceremony, said: "This is a very good example of reintegration assistance that can be replicated in the Northern Province. It is important to do community rehabilitation and to stop the labeling of this group of people."

The Batticaloa project follows another pilot reintegration project implemented by IOM at the request of the government in 2003. The RECLAIM programme successfully helped some 600 former combatants return to civilian life.

IOM has implemented post-conflict disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programmes that, over the past 20 years, have helped over 300,000 former combatants and 1.5 million of their dependents in 25 countries to return to normal civilian lives.

Sri Lanka has been an IOM member state since 1990 and IOM has had a major presence in the country, including six sub-offices in the north and east, since the December 2004 tsunami. In addition to the reintegration of former combatants, IOM Sri Lanka's activities include emergency response and reconstruction, technical cooperation in migration management, capacity building, counter trafficking, and return and reintegration.

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For more information, please contact: Tanja Cerovina, IOM Colombo, Email: tcerovina@iom.int, Stacey Winston, Email: swinston@iom.int or Passanna Gunasekera, Email: pgunasekera@iom.int