This child who was under severe pressure to rejoin the LTTE last year, is under threat again:
“When my grandson came home, we had to keep him in a room as we were so scared that he would be taken back by the LTTE. He was allowed to go out to the wash room only after dark. Our fear increased as some of the returnees were quickly re-recruited forcefully by the LTTE.
“My daughter never left the house in fear that he would be snatched away if she left him even for a moment. As the two factions increased their presence in the lane in which we live, we started moving from house to house every week. For a short time when recruitment reduced, he started going for daily labour with his father.
However, since mid-May the LTTE has started looking for him once again. Now he is again confined to his room and his mother stays with him all the time. My grandson tells his mother: ‘I will be killed by them soon I know they will not let me live much longer.’”
He is only 16 -years old. These are the kind of stories one hears when travelling from Valachchenai to Pothuvil. Since mid-May recruitment has started in earnest, causing intense fear among the people living in the east, who are already under enormous pressure due to the daily inter-group killings there.
The recruitment of children has increased to alarming numbers despite the repeated promises of the LTTE to stop this practice. This is ongoing in the Eastern province in spite of the increased presence of the international and local civil society organizations and the visits there by foreign dignitaries in the post-Tsunami period.
In the aftermath of the Human Rights Watch Report, there had been increased criticism of the LTTE’s continuous practice of forceful recruitment of children. Subsequently, Olara Otunnu, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, in his report in February 2005 suggested that the Security Council should take strong action against militant organizations that practice child recruitment.
His list included Sri Lanka. His recommendations include “the imposition of travel restrictions on leaders and their exclusion from any governance structures and amnesty provisions, the imposition of arms embargos, a ban on military assistance, and restriction on the flow of financial resources to the parties concerned” (Executive Summary Draft 5th Report). Some countries have expressed support for such a UN resolution. Possibly as a result of HRW criticism of UNICEF, Sri Lanka’s inaction and setting up of transit centers, UNICEF came up with a strong statement against the LTTE for taking 40 children immediately after the Tsunami.
This international and local pressure had compelled the LTTE to reduce large-scale recruitment; nevertheless the LTTE adopted a transitional strategy of taking one child per village to reduce international attention on them. However, children who had lost their parents and relatives were also snatched. Some of these incidents are:
1. Three girls were taken from Mandana camp in Vinaya Puram in Amparai district on January 7, 2005 on the pretext of educating and providing for them. One of them had lost her parents and two sisters in the tsunami;
2. Subsequently another three girls were taken from the same camp aged 8, 10 and 12 years.
This lull came to an end by mid-May. Recruitment has drastically increased with the LTTE once again holding meetings at its offices demanding one child per family be given and attempting to re-recruit the remaining returnees from April 2004. Some of the incidents are:
1. Forcible recruitment of two children (ages of 15) from Kudinilam in Amparai district. They were taken between June 22- 25 near a Hindu kovil;
2. Recruitment of a 16 year old boy on June 23 from Vinayapuram;
3. 16 -year returnees near Navakadu in Batticaloa district have been demanded by the LTTE.
4. A 17-year-old boy who escaped from the LTTE in the same area is now being hunted down.
Similar incidents are occurring all over the Eastern Province in the LTTE-controlled areas. As a panic response, parents are once again resorting to marrying of their children, sending them out of the area and country incurring enormous debt and financial burdens.
Temple festival time is a time of accelerated recruitment for the LTTE. Every year, the LTTE uses the gathering of large crowds into kovils to subtly carry out its recruitment practices. Last year at the request of local communities UNICEF did monitor the festivals and thus manage to reduce the recruitment of children at festival sites.
However, this year their success rate has been low. For one the enormous crowds have made monitoring extremely difficult. The chaos, noise, numbers present at some of the festivals and the large number of temples in the east make monitoring extremely difficult. Hence we have heard reports of many children being taken at these sites. (see coalition to stop the recruitment of children statement for more information on this).
Furthermore, the fact that Unicef refuses to reach out to the large population to protect them has meant very little protection has been offered to these children and their families. UNICEF at present has offices only in main towns. This has proved extremely ineffective as most recruitment occur in small villages outside its purview. Although the LTTE has renewed its pledge not to continue child recruitment, it continues to break its promises. This poses the question how child recruitment can be stopped. We suggest:
1. The UN security council should impose its suggested restrictions immediately.
2. Countries should refuse visas to the LTTE leaders until they stop this practice.
3. Civil Society Organizations in other parts of the country should play a proactive role against child recruitment by the LTTE, breaking their usual silence.
4. LTTE’s participation in governance structures should be made conditional to stopping child recruitment.
5. UNICEF should take proactive role in opening up offices in villages to monitor the situation.
6. That organizations, especially international ones working in the North and East be constantly vigilant and active regarding this issue.
7. That human rights activists, peace lobbyist in the south actively speak out against this practice, breaking their usual silence regarding these violations
The writer is a Senior Lecturer, Department of Economics, University of Peradeniya
(http://www.dailymirror.lk/2005/07/15/opinion/1.asp)
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