ABSTRACT
Sri Lanka launched its first terrorist rehabilitation programme with the defeat of the LTTE in 2009. The presidential directive was clear: ‘it’s time to launch “humanitarian mission 02”, to get them back on track with their normal lives’. The state considered the detainees as ‘misled by the terrorist leadership into engaging in terrorist activity’ but nevertheless, ‘citizens’. The way forward was to rehabilitate the former Tamil Tigers with a view to reintegration into civil society. The six-pronged multifaceted rehabilitation programme was geared towards supporting the rehabilitees to come to terms with their actions and adopt a non-violent way of life within a safe environment. The architects of the programme studied how terrorists and their leaders denied basic liberties and manipulated their followers during training. The aim was to address these deficits during their period in rehabilitation and facilitate participant re-engagement in civilian life. To move beyond mere disengagement from violence, designing, and implementing well-crafted rehabilitation programmes to reverse the process of violent radicalisation was essential. Winning hearts and minds was the overarching principle of each rehabilitation centre. To ensure standards of excellence, programme effectiveness was evaluated by the centre and progress made by rehabilitees assessed by independent assessors. Sri Lanka has currently reintegrated more than 12,000 rehabilitated terrorists into civil society.
