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http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp013r074z196| Title: | Transition to civilian life of teenage girls and young women ex-combatants: a case study from Batticaloa |
| Other Titles: | (ICES Research Papers 1) |
| Contributors: | Krishnan, Sonny Inbaraj |
| Keywords: | Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) ethnic conflict Vituthalai Pulikal Munani Suthantira Paravaigal women and children girl soldiers |
| Issue Date: | Jun-2012 |
| Publisher: | International Centre for Ethnic Studies |
| Place of Publication: | Colombo, Sri Lanka |
| Description: | "For nearly three decades, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) fighters waged a violent bloody war in Sri Lanka where they controlled some parts of the North and East of Sri Lanka. In May 2009, the Sri Lankan army brutally crushed the separatist rebels ending one of Asia’s longest-running insurgencies. In the midst of the war, a generation of Sri Lanka’s Tamil girls – both children and young teenagers – in the Women’s Front of the Liberation Tigers or Vituthalai Pulikal Munani formed an important part of the Tigers’ forces. These girls, that comprised one-third of the active fighting force of the LTTE (Bouta 2005), were known as Suthantira Paravaigal or ‘Birds of Freedom’, a title bestowed upon them by Lt. Col. Thileepan, the Tigers’ political chief in Jaffna. The end of hostilities in May 2009 saw some 270,000 to 300,000 Tamils fleeing the conflict zone in the North and settling in camps for internally displaced people. Fleeing the fighting, together with the civilians, were thousands of Tamil Tiger combatants – many of them injured women fighters – both young women and more experienced middle-aged female fighters, who surrendered to the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL). Some of these combatants have now returned to their communities following a rehabilitation programme conducted by the government. However, there are no proper state funded safety nets and support services to assist in rebuilding their lives. Among ex-combatants in Batticaloa are also former women combatants who self demobilized in 2004. Though survivors, many of the women ex-combatants that this researcher met in the remote hamlets of Batticaloa still bear deep emotional wounds caused by forced conscription by the Tamil Tigers; the witnessing of gruesome deaths; and the physical injuries of war. Their voices speak of fear, loss of education, and the severance of close family ties. Despite this pain, there is hope for these returned women ex-combatants as they reintegrate into their communities and eke out a livelihood through the support of women in matrilocal household clusters. This paper, based on research carried out by the author in Batticaloa between April to June 2010, is on the resilient female networks, prevalent in eastern Sri Lanka, that care for the causalities of war and till recently protected self-demobilized girl child soldiers from forcible re-recruitment by the LTTE, also known as the Tamil Tigers." |
| URI: | http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp013r074z196 |
| ISBN: | 9789555801263 |
| Related resource: | http://www.scribd.com/doc/99286838/The-Transition-to-Civilian-Life-of-Teenage-Girlsand-Young-Women-Ex-Combatants-A-Case-Study-from-Batticaloa |
| Appears in Collections: | Monographic reports and papers (Publicly Accessible) |
Files in This Item:
| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TransitionToCivilianLife_ICES_paper_1.pdf | 580.83 kB | Adobe PDF | View/Download |
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