Fifty-three couples of former Tamil Tiger rebels were married yesterday in a colorful mass ceremony at a government camp in northern Sri Lanka with a Bollywood star as witness.
Some of the brides and grooms had trained or fought together during Sri Lanka’s quarter-century civil war that ended last year.
They are among thousands of rebels who surrendered to the government and are still interned at a rehabilitation camp near the northern town of Vavuniya.
Some of the couples had already been living together without being legally married — socially unacceptable in Sri Lanka. Others had only taken a vow at Hindu temples and exchanged flower garlands, according to an ethnic Tamil tradition.
Government ministers attended yesterday’s ceremony, signing the marriage certificates and giving gifts to the couples.
Bollywood heartthrob Viveik Oberoi also attended and joined camp inmates in a dance to a popular Tamil song from a south Indian movie.
During the ceremony, brides dressed in bright red or yellow sarees, and with artificial flowers in their hair, stood beside grooms in white shirts with sacred ash on their foreheads.
Grooms tied a saffron-colored thread with a pendant around the brides’ necks as relatives threw flowers. The couples then exchanged flower garlands and shared a cup of milk and fruit to symbolize sharing.
Sivapathasundaram Kavithas, 29, had been a fighter for nine years. He met his wife Bhavani, 28, a fighter for 12 years, when they went for weapons training together.
The couple exchanged garlands at a Hindu temple and made a vow of marriage with family blessings in 2006, seven years after they met.
The camp houses some of the 10,000 men, women and children who gave themselves up to the army as having had links to the Tamil Tiger rebels soon after fighting ended in May last year.
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