Sri Lanka may pardon surrendering rebels

Sri Lanka’s government said it is considering an amnesty for Tamil Tiger rebels who surrender – but not for leaders of the insurgency, which is facing defeat after 25 years of civil war.

Sri Lankan Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said yesterday that officials were studying the legal basis for a possible pardon for separatists who surrender but that a final decision had not been made.

He said any offer would not be open to rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and others convicted in Sri Lanka for various attacks or wanted in neighbouring India for the 1991 assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

“The leadership will be dealt with under the laws of the country,” Mr Samarasinghe said.

Mr Samarasinghe said the government plans to offer vocational training for surrendering rebels to help them reintegrate into society.

Tamil Tiger leaders have vowed no surrender. Every fighter is meant to wear a cyanide capsule and swears an oath to swallow the capsule to avoid capture.

But the government says a number of rebels have already given themselves up, including the group’s former media spokesman and an interpreter for its political wing.

Mr Gandhi was blown up by a suspected Tamil Tiger female suicide bomber at an election rally in southern India in apparent revenge for sending a peacekeeping force to Sri Lanka in 1987.

The rebels have fought since 1983 to create an independent homeland for ethnic minority Tamils, who have suffered decades of marginalisation by successive governments controlled by majority ethnic Sinhalese. More than 70,000 people have been killed in the violence.