8/1/2007

Civilians who have managed to escape the LTTE dominated Wanni area reveal that megalomaniac terror chief, V. Prabhakaran has set out a massive child recruitment campaign, ordering each family to give up at least one child to his terror outfit.

A family of seven who arrived at an army point at Senmanthivu in Mannar on Monday (July 30) morning said the families living in terror dominated Wanni have to go into hiding in the jungle at night to save their children from the LTTE's child hunters.

"We had to go into the jungle in the night time to save our children from Prabhakaran's child abduction squad. They come at night time and drag children as young as 12 to their camps" said one of the refugees to defence.lk special correspondent in Mannar.

The family that arrived on Monday comprised the two parents and their four children, two girls and one boy. The father of the family said they were residents of Wattakandal and had to crawl miles through thick jungle to avoid being hunted down by the LTTE terrorists.

"During the day they (LTTE) force us to do fatigue. Not even the elders are spared from the harsh work including digging trenches, building bunkers and etc", the father said.

"Some of the parents whose children had been abducted have suffered mental breakdowns. If you go there you would see many parents cursing Prabhakaran, even in front of LTTE camps. None of us want our children to die as suicide bombers" he further added.

Our correspondent was of the view that the number of refugees coming from the LTTE controlled Wanni would soon swell. He said that on Friday (July 27) 13 people including 8 males and 5 females had arrived at Ulliankulam army roadblock in Mannar. These families from the Adampan and Allankulam areas have told similar stories about the human catastrophe taking place in the Wanni.

According to the information obtained from the civilians, the LTTE hierarchy is showing signs of panic with worsening manpower shortage after the outfit's recent debacle in the East. The LTTE had been seriously weakened by the death of a large number of its members while many were injured or disabled. Also many others had surrendered to the security forces during the humanitarian operation in the East that came to an end in mid- July.

These reports confirm several international media reports and observations by diplomatic personnel that the LTTE is stepping up its recruitment of children and forcible recruitment of one member from every family to carry arms for the terror outfit.

Civilian sources also revealed that the LTTE had put up posters ordering at least one member from each family to join them to fight for their leaders dream for a mono-ethnic Tamil homeland. The sources further said the LTTE had also written to the families which had not responded to the request on posters. The dates and times when a member of each family should be handed over too were specified in these letters, the sources added.

Earlier on Sunday (July 29), defence.lk learnt that the LTTE had ordered each family in the Wanni to provide 2 pints of blood following an air raid on the Senkadeer sea tiger base in Alampil. Pro-LTTE media though remaining silent on air attack on the sea tiger camp were observed harping on an alleged navy attack on the fishermen at Alampil. The navy yesterday vehemently denied the false accusation saying that its sea units had not engaged in any offensive missions during last week in the eastern waters.

Meanwhile, several international media institutions have also reported the worsening humanitarian situation in the Wanni. Reuters, IRIN and even BBC had their own reports highlighting the LTTE's forceful recruitment campaign in Wanni.

The BBC website on Monday (July 30) said even local aid workers employed in INGOs are being abducted and forcibly recruited by the LTTE. BBC correspondent Ronald Buerk reporting from Kilinochchi says in his article "Tamil Tigers forced recruitment' that some local aid workers in "most international organizations in rebel held areas" ..., "have not left their compounds for months due to the fear of being abducted by the LTTE.

The same BBC report quotes Arne Bangstad, head of the Nordic aid agency, Forut to have said "We do experience that staff of all the different non-governmental organizations are getting abducted or have tremendous pressure put upon them, because they (LTTE) want to recruit them. We have been promised by the political wing of the Tigers that such recruitment should not take place, and that the humanitarian status of the NGOs would be respected. But in practicality, we find that this is not really the case."