 |
|
|
|
| News Stories |
|
|
|
Home Mail2Lanka News Sports World Previous Stories |
DESPITE THAILAND PROMISES OF ANTON BALASINGHAM TAMIL TIGERS CONTINUE TO KIDNAP AND TRAIN CHILDREN IN COMBAT WARFARE By Walter Jayawardhana reporting from Los Angeles The evidence of three Tamil children who escaped from a Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) military training camp indicate that the Tamil Tigers despite their public promises to hand over all children they had kidnapped for military training back to their parents instead are still kidnapping children and giving them military training in preparation for a war. The three children who managed to escape from the military training complex at Thora Thora Malai in the Thoppigala area in the Eastern Province said there were nearly 200 children in the camp being trained in combat warfare. The three children said they were kidnapped by LTTE agents against their will during the month of November and December in 2002. A CNN news story datelined November 3, 2002 said that LTTE’s chief negotiator Anton Balasingham gave a solid assurance at direct talks with GOSL delegation at Nakhon Pathom in Thailand that the rebel group would stop recruiting children. The CNN news story said, “The rebel group also agreed to stop recruiting children to its cause – the first admission that it had been doing this.” Among those who escaped from the camp was a child named Selvamanikkam Suranjith who was 14 years old. The fourteen year old boy said that he was kidnapped by a LTTE agent called Navarathan when he came from Kalkudah to Kiran to sell some fish.The other two boys aged 16 were Murugappan Thushakaran and Rathnasingham Thavarkaldan and are from the Kalmunai area. The army said the three boys surrendered themselves to the army guard post at the Black Bridge in Chenkaladi on the Badulla Batticaloa road in the early hours of December 30, 2002 According to the information received from these three the Tamil Tigers continued to kidnap children for military training both from the LTTE controlled areas in the East and Sri Lanka government controlled areas in the same province. Tyronne Fernando, the minister of Foreign Affairs has specifically instructed his Ministry to remove the pressure brought on by them on foreign human rights groups against the child recruitment practices of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Fernando had been instrumental in stopping the massive international pressure mounted by the former Minister of Foreign Affairs , Lakshman Kadirgamar against the wide spread child recruitment of the LTTE. (EOM) are shocked that a Bishop of the Church to which the great Tamil National Leader S.J.V. Chelvanayakam belonged should enter the political fray supporting a terrorist organisation which had murdered thousands of innocent citizens, most of them Tamils.” (EOM) (31/12/02 go2lanka.com) |