A report by the Multi Ethnic Collective For Child Security
The situation in the districts of both Batticaloa and Amparai is frightening and depressing. Any time spent with the local community there only confirms what has already been mentioned elsewhere that "that peace has passed by the east, leaving its people out. Batticaloa is in the thrall of the peace process, but there is no peacefulness; definitely not for the struggling and working families and people of Batticaloa" and Amparai. If anything, times are far worse now than in April when the Karuna faction split with the LTTE. At that time the LTTE system of taxation had stopped temporarily and approximately 3,000 children had returned to their parents and there was hope that some positive changes might come about. Attempts at resistance documented by some activists at that time have very little space now. Mothers have been systematically silenced, and the little resistance they still show condemned.
The security of families is an important issue and children feel doubly vulnerable in a climate of daily political killings. Communities live in extraordinary fear now. Muslims and Tamil are divided because of the growing tension there, extreme forms of taxation especially for the Muslims have resumed, and children are being recruited with little respite.
Political killings and violence in the East
Killings in the East are a daily occurrence, whereas in the south only a few of those instances are reported. They continue unabated. The cross-fires between the two LTTE factions have increased the climate of fear to unbearable levels. The list of political killings, shootings and people getting caught in the cross-fire between LTTE and Karuna factions is long and tortuous to go through. The killings are reportedly carried out by "unidentified gunmen" especially when the perpetrators are perceived to be cadres of the LTTE. This increases the level of fear and uncertainty among the people there who do not know how to react to an incident of this nature, whom to sympathise with, and frighteningly, what and whom to mourn for. Mourning for the dead too has become a lonely event as funerals are sparsely attended. Even places of refuge like hospitals are not safe for victims as very little security is provided for them. This daily grind of killings gives shape to people’s responses to important issues like child recruitment, Muslim-Tamil relations, the peace process and democracy in general.
Muslim-Tamil relations continue to be a thorn on the side of peace initiatives. Violence targeting the Muslims community does little to mend matters. Efforts are being made to bring the two communities and sometimes all three communities, Muslim, Sinhala and Tamil, together, into a reconciliation process. Yet, as long as these communities are held hostage to a gun culture that stifles open discussion, where grievances are attended to and rectified, there will be little improvement in the existing situation.
Forced recruitment of children and young adults
According to UNICEF figures 488 children had been recruited in the first six months of the year. Local sources claim that there are times when between 16-20 children are abducted in one week. If 10 children are abducted at any given time, about 2 or 3 may be released to the UNICEF by the LTTE. This is one of the strategies of appeasement employed by the LTTE to defuse public protest. What of the plans set in motion when these children were released in April 2004?
In the months of September-October, there had been a temporary lull in the recruitment drive in the Batticaloa district. As one person told us "the two factions are too busy killing each other and so have no time to recruit children for the moment." But even as we were contemplating this new trend, reports of new incidents of recruitment in the Batticaloa district trickled in.
Meanwhile in Akkaraipattu, Kalmunai, Samanthurai, Kopalapuram and Trincomalee recruitment drives continue unchecked. This phenomenon is not confined purely to the East for there are also recent reports of increased recruitment in Killinochchi. The issue becomes far worse in uncleared areas where there is very little monitoring and reporting of abductions. There are approximately 200 returned children in the Akkaraipattu division hiding in their homes while the LTTE is pressurising these children to rejoin. In Mallumale, close to Kiran in the Batticaloa district, there has been an intense recruitment drive. Many of the uncleared areas see an increase in recruitment with families having no option but to give up their children to the LTTE. In the area of Samanthurai which falls into the Ampara division, children and parents have been warned not to resist and to rejoin the movement before they are asked again.
One morning a few months ago on the Vaharai road, in Pannichankerny, a girl between the age of 15-17 was apprehended on a bus. The mother who had heard about it went after her and took her back. Then later while they were walking back the mother was beaten up and the girl was abducted again. The girl is one of the returnees. She had started to go back to school and was placed in Grade 7. The beating was carried out by LTTE women.
That very evening LTTE women, who had rejoined the movement after having been released, had gone to a house of a child in Vaharai who had returned and beaten up the mother and had taken her child, a daughter, away. They had threatened an older brother who was there.
The LTTE went to the place of another girl who was not there; beat up the mother and had said that the next time they came the girl should be there. This was in Vaharai again.
Again in Vaharai, the LTTE had visited the home of a young adult returnee who was recovering from injuries she had sustained in some confrontation. The LTTE had said that she could stay home and recover for now but they would come back for her later.
Recruitment has not been confined to the underaged returnees only as, since August, there have been many new recruits as well. In the first week of August itself 20-25 children under the age of 18 were abducted in Kathiraveli in the Veruhal Area of northern Batticaloa district. Mothers who protested and wanted to go public with their protest were threatened with death if they did so. In the town of Kopalapuram in Trincomalee alone, the LTTE has recruited 20 children recently. They are all fresh recruits. In one family they have recruited both brother and sister. This has been through the screening of propaganda material in the kovil and through intimidating parents and children.
In Valathapitiya in the Ampara district we heard that there were 20 under-aged returnees children of whom 6 are young girls. They have been told to come back; they have no prospects such as going to school or obtaining a job; and extreme poverty at home has made them think that re-joining is the only choice open to them.
Bedtime stories
The stories that we narrate are of two children and their families who were released in April by the Karuna faction, who are but two among the 2-3,000 children estimated to have been released at that point. Both these boys are fifteen years old and have remained with their parents for six months. They were both recruited when they were 12 or 13 years of age. One when he was out playing in the neighbourhood, the other when he had been on his way to school. How have they passed their time in these last six months, after having been released? How have the Sri Lankan state and the myriad of International organizations that zoom past the areas in their large vehicles waving big flags paved the way for these children to be secure?
Both these children have been confined to their homes for most of the last six months. One of them attempted to attend a vocational training programme. He attended this programme for perhaps a month or two. Returning to school seemed impossible as he had missed so much, and schools, children and parents of other children were suspicious of these children. Perhaps he thought that through this special programme he would now have a chance of interacting with other children, learn some skills he could use to earn some money for his very poor family. Whatever his dreams may have been, they exist no longer. Two months after he started the programme two other children who were also ‘returnees’ were abducted on their way home by bus from the training programme. His parents immediately stopped him attending for fear of his being re-recruited. Such vocational training programmes have become the means of monitoring children’s movements for the LTTE. For girls this problem remains acute as their still shoulder-length hair gives them away. Many of these girls who are in residential programmes where they have been offered some safety are learning skills such as needle work.
The other child has stayed at home for six months, locked in his room, without going out. He was initially abducted when he was twelve and out playing. His parents do not want to take that risk again.
Both these children have been asked to come back to the LTTE. On Friday, the 15th of October, the LTTE asked all the mothers and children of the returnee children and youth to report to its office in Akkaraipattu. Many of the mothers did not take their children along with them at that point whereas some even refused to attend. Despite intimidations, they showed enormous courage. It is hard to imagine that they have the energy to resist in a climate of daily cross killings, coercion and bullying by the LTTE that pays no heed to pleas of respecting human rights and child rights of Tamils and Muslims in the East. These mothers had been told to bringtheir children for a meeting on the 17th of October to the LTTE office. They had been warned that if they did not bring their children, they would be branded as partisan to the Karuna faction and would pay the consequences of such resistance. If any of them refused to bring his or her child or took that child away to a safer place in the south, their other children would suffer. Many children and mothers went on the 17th out of fear. Apparently a group of over 100 people had gathered at this meeting. One of the LTTE leaders had told them to forget about leaving the movement and to forget about staying at home. According to reports, parents had been weeping at the office, scared, not knowing how to let go of their children, not knowing how to resist. At the end of the day, letters had been given to the children and parents stating that the children must join soon, when they are called upon. Unconfirmed reports say that UNICEF officials were present at the meeting. This may have stopped the LTTE from recruiting children on that same day.
The grandfather of the two young boys we spent some time with told us "my daughter will die if they take her son again. She spent so much money during the three years he was with the LTTE to try to find him. We never even got a chance to visit him. She was miserable during this time. Now she has him back, we would rather die than give him up again."
Shifting these children to safer places remains dogged with numerous problems. If any of these children are taken to safer places, then the LTTE will harass the parents, beat them, and furthermore take one of the other children as compensation. One of the children we spoke to had one brother who was 16 years old and a sister who is 14 years old. These other children live in fear of being recruited by the LTTE.
Such pressures on the whole family may make the under-aged returnee child feel that his staying with his family is a liability to all and that the only way to ease his family’s burden is to rejoin the LTTE.
Measures of Peace
What of the vocational training programmes, and of catch up classes for these children? The abduction of children while returning from these training programmes suggests that such programmes offer no security for these children at all. Hence, these children have very few means of re-integrating into society. They are isolated and alone. Furthermore, recent abductions suggest that more and more children fear attending these programmes and being caught out in public. Many families had married their young daughters off in the hope that this will stop their being re-recruited. However, families confirm that this has not been successful. We spoke to some children and asked them what they wanted to do. They wanted to stay at home with their mothers, to learn some skills and to try to earn some money.
There are very few places in Sri Lanka that can accommodate these children. Accommodating them needs to be accompanied with sufficient measures of security for these children. One local NGO leader told us that whatever action they could take to re-integrate these children would be totally disrupted by the intervention of the "boys."
Very few children have recourse to the numerous INGOs and other organizations working there. These institutions often repeat that the security of these children is not their mandate. Only UNICEF seems to have a mandate to look into the issue of protecting under-aged children. They have thus far not done what it takes to guarantee the security of these children. Their agreement with the TRO has made a mockery of child safety and rights. Many people fear that any information given to the UNICEF will only help the LTTE keep better track of the returnee children.
The government and human rights organizations have not reacted or organized themselves sufficiently to help these children. Six months have passed since these children have returned home. Yet, very little has been done. What has been done is insufficient and larger better organized efforts need to be made.
The continuous down playing of the issue of protection of these children has meant that the LTTE has now little regard for criticisms of its recruitment drives made by the international community. These condemnations seem more attempts at lip service to issues of human rights than really a sincere attempt to safeguard these children. Only a few people from the local community have attempted to safeguard these children at great risk to their own lives. The continuous and daily political killings has meant that even these activists feel the space around them rapidly closing up.
The public’s response to child recruitment and forced conscription is the touchstone of this society’s will to achieve peace and justice. We make a clarion call to all concerned to rally around this issue.
