STUDENTS OF VALAICHENAI HINDU SCHOOL DEMONSTRATE AGAINST CHILD ABDUCTIONS AFTER SCANDALOUS UNICEF PROGRAM FAILS TO HELP
By Walter Jayawardhana reporting from Los Angeles
October 08, 07.00 PM: The students of Valaichenai Hindu Maha Vidyalayam performed a Sathyagrahaya on the Valaichenai Kalkudah road ,October 6 and demanded the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) abductors immediately return three students from the school they took away by force.
Ever since the LTTE abductions of school children were started and intensified after Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe came to power this was the first time Tamil school children themselves demonstrated against the illegal abductions by the separatist rebel group to conscript the children to their guerilla army.
Sources in Valaichenai Maha Vidyalayam said LTTE recruiters abducted the three advanced level students while the children were returning from private tuition classes.
Students said if the abducted colleagues were not returned to the school or parents immediately all of them once again would boycott classes and come to the street to demonstrate.
Police Superintendent Lasantha de Silva of Valaichenai said that when he was informed about the student demonstration he immediately rushed to the spot to find out the demonstration. He said students told him the three advanced level students were allegedly abducted by the terrorist group abductors who came in a a van usually used for the illegal purpose of abducting isolated school children on the road.
Lasantha de Silva said this was the first time school children themselves rose up against the abductions.
Due to the pandemonium, the ASP Valachchenai, called the representatives of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission and the LTTE to bring the situation under control, and Lasantha de Silva said LTTE promised to look in to the allegations.
The Superintendent of Police said it had become practically impossible for the Police to help when students were abducted and taken in to LTTE controlled areas, as he termed as un-cleared areas. In those instances the only way the Police could deal with the situation was through the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) backed by Norway he said.
After immediately releasing 49 child soldiers to the UNICEF funded rehabilitation center run in a LTTE controlled area the rebel group started to intensify child abductions , probably to compensate the releases, Sri Lanka Child Protection authorities said. The sources said it was a case of releasing them from one end and taking them in from the other . While releasing children for propaganda purposes to lessen international pressure the child abductions have been actually increased other sources said. Investigations show that the UNICEF fund for rehabilitation has actually enriched a LTTE front organization that has made this into an international scandal.
Immediately after , the opening of the scandal ridden rehabilitation center at the LTTE controlled town of Kilinochchi which is run by the UN children’s Fund and the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization , a front organization of the same rebel group who abduct children, UNICEF officials who were responsible for releasing millions to the front organization, admitted the LTTE was continuing to abduct children.
The LTTE abducted at least 24 persons including the Valaichenai students immediately after the opening of the Rehabilitation Center from that area, other sources said.
