22.05.2008
The
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) continued to recruit
and use children, despite repeated commitments not to
do so, a global report on child soldiers released on Tuesday
(May 20) said.
Child
Soldiers Global Report 2008 published by the Coalition
to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, a non governmental
organization based in London, UK said that the LTTE, which
had recruited under-age fighters for many years, pledged
on June 18 2007 to rid its ranks of all under-18s by the
end of 2007.
Despite
the pledges LTTE had not committed to the full release
of children under 18, it said.
“The
LTTE consistently denied that it knowingly recruited children
and it claimed that children sought to join by disguising
their age. However, there is overwhelming evidence of
recruitment, often forced, throughout areas under LTTE
control as well as from government-controlled areas in
the north and east. The recruitment of children typically
followed a pattern of increased recruitment during the
season of temple festivals and a fall during periods of
international condemnation,” the report noted.
The
report accused the breakaway rebel group Karuna faction
too for forcibly recruiting and using children.
“Children
in the east of the country were forcibly recruited and
used by the Karuna group, a breakaway group of the LTTE,
with the complicity of, and in some instances actively
working with, the security forces,” it said.
It
blamed the Sri Lankan government for not making any arrests
so far of cadres of the LTTE or Karuna group in relation
to child recruitment saying that the police often refused
to accept complaints from parents of abducted children.
CP