LTTE IN A MIGHTY HURRY ASSAULTING PARENTS, BURNING AND BREAKING HOUSES TO TAKE AWAY CHILDREN SAYS AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL.
By Walter Jayawardhana reporting from Los Angeles
July 08, 11.00 PM: "With today's news of a suicide bombing in Colombo, the fact that the Tamil Tigers have started a new wave of child recruitment is alarming," said Amnesty International.
The London based award winning human rights group warned, "If the armed conflict were to resume, these children would likely be among the first to die.
In a statement issued immediately after the Colombo suicide bombing, alleged to be by a female LTTE cadre named Jayarani from Jaffna the Amnesty International(AI) charged that the Tamil Tigers were increasingly turning to threats and violence in a recruitment drive for child soldiers. Families who resist have been beaten with wooden sticks, or had their houses set on fire, the AI said.
The AI warning said , that since the beginning of April 2004, 190 children have been recruited to fight, according to information provided by UNICEF. This brings the number of verified cases this year to 330. Many of these children have been forcibly abducted from public places or their homes. Some of the new recruits are as young as fourteen.
The Amnesty international further charged that since the beginning of April 2004, 190 children had been recruited to fight, according to information provided by UNICEF. This brought the number of verified cases this year to 330, they said. Many of these children have been forcibly abducted from public places or their homes. Some of the new recruits were as young as fourteen.
To take these children forcibly , the Amnesty International said at least on one occasion the Tamil Tigers set fire to a house The report said, The Tamil Tigers were also increasingly re-recruiting former child soldiers, released by renegade leader Karuna by force. In one case in May, four children who had left the Tamil Tigers were taken away from their homes in the middle of the night. Their families say they were violently assaulted when they tried to intervene.
In another case, Tamil Tigers set fire to a house in Sinnathatumunai, eastern Sri Lanka, and broke down the doors of nine others.
In the eastern Vaharai area, relatives were beaten with wooden sticks when they tried to stop their children being taken away. In one instance a woman was knocked unconscious, and another was cut on the face. Both needed medical treatment.
"The Tamil Tigers leadership must issue orders to its cadres to stop these violent and intimidating tactics immediately," said Amnesty International. "It should stick to its earlier commitments to stop the recruitment and use of child soldiers. Children in its ranks should be returned to their homes and not face the threat of re-recruitment."
Last year over 1,200 children were enlisted as soldiers, but in June 2003 the Tamil Tigers promised to stop using children in a joint agreement,Action Plan for Children affected by War.
The Amnesty International in a report issued on Sri Lanka earlier also severely reprimanded the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) of breaches of the Ceasefire Agreement by killing and abduction of members of other Tamil political groups and recruitment of children as child soldiers.
The report issued by the human rights group for the period from January through December 2003 said the inhuman LTTE abductions and the brutal killings of members of Tamil political parties and their relatives were reported particularly between April and August in 2003.
Pinponting a particular abduction of a Tamil woman the report said, “Sivapunniam Rathirani Varatharjah was abducted and briefly detained by the LTTE in July. Her abductors beat and threatened to kill her if her husband did not renounce membership of the Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front-Varathar. She went into hiding with her two children”
The report particularly pointed out the deception of the LTTE regarding public promises made by them about child recruitment The report said, “Reports of child recruitment continued throughout the year, despite commitments by the LTTE to end the practice. In August the government and the LTTE agreed an Action Plan for the demobilization and rehabilitation of children. Three transit camps would be established, managed by the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization and UNICEF (the UN Children's Fund), to assess the children's needs before returning them to their communities and to provide them with education, health care, vocational training and micro-credit facilities.
“The first camp opened in Kilinochchi in October, housing 49 children. There were reports that, the next day, the LTTE forcibly recruited up to 23 children, and that child recruitment continued but on a smaller scale. UNICEF said it was informed that, of 1,155 children with the LTTE, 385 had been released”
