The Sri Lankan government said on Saturday that it will introduce a new concept, community villages, to reintegrate and rehabilitate former Tamil Tiger rebels who are now under rehabilitation process at government run centers.

Newly appointed Commissioner General of Rehabilitation, Brigadier Sudantha Ranasinghe told reporters that the proposal to establish community villages has already drawn and in the process of clearing some administrative requirements before putting it for the final nod.

“Initially we want to shelter 200 families of those under rehabilitation. We have already selected the location with 200 houses,”Ranasinghe said, adding that there are over 3,000 married members under rehabilitation.

“When those under rehabilitation are living with their families it is easy to rehabilitate them. This is a novel concept that we are going to try out,”he said.

The 11,390 ex-cadres of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam ( LTTE) are now sheltered in 18 state run rehabilitation centers. The majority of them had surrendered to the military during the last stages of the battle in May last year and the rest were arrested while mingling with the displaced civilians housed at welfare centers in the north.

Ranasinghe said the exLTTE cadres are given vocational training including house wiring, beauty culture and carpentry. The latest addition is the training on motor mechanism.