Commandos rescue eight LTTE child soldiers - Kangikaidichchi Aru

Police Commandos the elite corps of the Police Special Task Force (STF) on Tuesday (August 28) rescued seven child combatants along with another 20-year old youth who had been forced by the LTTE to engage in a terrorist attack against the security forces in the Kangikaidichchi Aru area.

According to STF sources, the commandos had rescued the group of young LTTE cadres comprising four girls and four boys when they had successfully intercepted a terrorist movement at a location close to the 212 milepost on the Akkaraipattu- Pothuvil main road.

The group of terrorists had attacked the STF commandos who had been conducting a clearing operation in the area around 5 am on Tuesday. The STF personnel had overpowered the terrorist attack successfully forcing them to flee in all directions.

During the subsequent search, STF personnel found eight fear-stricken children who had been hiding in the jungle along with weapons and other military gear belonging to the LTTE.

On inquires, the children have revealed they had come to attack the STF with a group consisting of about 50 other LTTE terrorists. The children have further said the terrorists group had attacked the STF with rocket-propelled grenades and T-56 weapons during the firefight on Tuesday early morning.

STF officials told defence.lk that there are seven LTTE child soldiers, boys and girls between the ages 14 and 16 years and one cadre aged 20 years. It has been further revealed that all the rescued LTTE cadres had been forcibly recruited to the terrorist outfit at a very young age. They told the STF that they had been abducted from their parents by the LTTE at different times, forcibly given arms training and put into combat. According to the details obtained the rescued were from Vinayagapuram, Thirukkovil , Kanchankuda and Akkaraipaththuwa areas. Their names are as follows:

1 Jeewarasa Sudan 15 Male
2 Chamuth Nadan 20 Male
3 Perumal Sinnathambi 15 Male
4 Dharmaratnam Ramesh 16 Male
5 Selvarasa Suwarajini 15 Female
6 Thuraisingham Sumana 14 Female
7 Vigneswaran Vinoyani 16 Female
8 Thavarasa Rashika 14 Female



During the search STF personnel also seized one claymore mine, one detonator, one detonator code, one wire roll, three anti-personnel mines, and one T-56 magazine with rounds along with some clothing and food items belonged to the LTTE.

In addition, the STF officials said that they had noticed bloodstains on the ground, raising suspicions that several LTTE cadres had been seriously injured or killed in the confrontation with the STF.

Meanwhile, Pro-LTTE media yesterday (August 29) reported that the Special Task Force had ambushed a group of LTTE cadres comprising 14 child soldiers in the same area on Tuesday (August 28) morning. They also claimed that the 14 child combatants were being taken to be handed over to the parents via UNICEF.

However, the rescued child soldiers, as well as the adult cadre have revealed that they were unaware about where they had been led to by the senior LTTE cadres, though they were eagerly waiting to desert the outfit.

The STF officials told defence.lk that it is highly unlikely that LTTE was taking the child soldiers to be handed over to UNICEF as the terrorists had launched several attacks at STF personnel in the same area during last few days.

The LTTE is a terrorist outfit that has been placed on the UN's list of shame for using child combatants to fight its war against Sri Lanka. Led by its psychopathic leader, V.Prabhakaran, the outfit has been fighting since 1983 for a mono-ethnic separate state for Tamils.

It is reliably estimated that at present the LTTE holds over 2000 child soldiers in its shameful "baby brigade" waiting to be killed as suicide bombers or as one-way fighters as desired by their leader. The LTTE, as one of their abominable tactics in war, uses untrained child combatants and teenage girls to lead the frontal assaults before its male cadres enter the battlefield. It is said the LTTE leader had introduced this tactic to make the maximum impact in the initial attack waves. Having been brain-washed and given no option to turn back, thousands of young combatants had died as one-way fighters in previous battles.

The STF that arranged for the children to be reunited with their parents has sent us some emotional moments that its camera captured when the parents met their loved children whom they lost a longtime ago. On seeing their teenage daughters with shortly cut hairs, the mothers burst into tears and cursed the LTTE leader for destroying their young lives . It is said the LTTE shaves the hair of the girl recruits and do not permit them to keep long hair again, in order to break their female image. Also, it is well known that, Prabhakaran's image as ruthless terror-chief is mostly built by these desperate girls who had no option but to die a violent death as suicide bombers.

Defence.lk requests LTTE activists living abroad in comfort and fighting for the "cause" via Internet from safe distances, to watch what disaster they had brought to the innocent Tamil people in Sri Lanka; and for LTTE fund raisers and sympathizers to watch the wicked purpose for which their funds have been used. Finally, we request human rights institutions to see what their inaction over LTTE crimes has resulted in.

(http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20070829_11)