Thousands of Ethnic Tamils From Jaffna Apply to Join Police

(30 Sept 09 -RV) Thousands of ethnic Tamil youths from northern Sri Lanka's former war zone are applying to join the police in the first such recruiting drive in three decades.No Tamils have been recruited from the Jaffna region, the minority group's cultural heartland, since 1979 due to threats and intimidation from Tamil Tiger rebels.The rebels considered those associated with police and government forces as traitors, and even killed them as they fought the government to establish an independent homeland.
Dr. Jehan Perera, the Executive Director of the National Peace Council of Sri Lanka, says that although recruitment of Tamils in the north is a positive step toward peace, it is not a determining step...