An Independent and Interactive Tamil Community Web Site

11-03-2006

Tigers taking more children: UNICEF

By Uditha Jayasinghe

The LTTE is apparently continuing with more child recruitment the United Nations Children’s Fund said yesterday while disclosing that more than 1300 fresh recruits have been drafted since the end of January.

However UNICEF dismissed media reports based on some shocking revelations by two child soldiers said to have made a daring escape from the clutches of the LTTE because “this particular information cannot be verified”.

“We cannot verify this information as reported in the media. UNICEF has been monitoring under age recruitment of reported cases. According to our database, since January 31 the number was 1,358. UNICEF continues to advocate the release of these children”, UNICEF Communications Officer Junko Mitani told the Daily Mirror.

Moreover UNICEF and the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission will continue to collaborate in monitoring the situation, sharing information and discussing the plight of children especially in vulnerable situations.

UNICEF strongly urged all involved to respect ethical guidelines when reporting children's issues and has conveyed this to the Government and the media.

Regardless of UNICEF-conducted workshops since 2003 on reporting of children’s issues and attended by more than 150 journalists including editors and reporters, the coverage of the child recruits was extensive.

The teenagers were catapulted to instant stardom following a packed news conference hosted by the Navy. A move that many including UNICEF have criticised as it could endanger the lives of the two boys and their families.

“It is extremely regrettable that the identities of the two children were revealed and widely reported by the media as being former child combatants. UNICEF is working to gain direct access to these children to assess the situation and to assure their smooth and safe integration with their families and communities. UNICEF is mandated to undertake this function by the Action Plan for Children Affected by War - a formal agreement between the Government and the LTTE,” Ms. Mitani said.

“Revealing children's names in these circumstances potentially places them at serious risk and hinders their return to normal life. Unless everybody, including the Government, media and the public, support ethical reporting, children's best interests will be compromised”, she said.

The two teenagers who were brought to Colombo by the Navy, said that more than 100 children were being trained for combat at a well-known LTTE camp. But now it appears that the number of child recruits could be much higher than initially expected.

Revelations by the would be suicide cardres of more than 100 children some as young as 12 or 13 undergoing tough training in camps evoked a storm of controversy since the rebels had pledged to end child recruitment at the recently concluded Geneva talks.

Source-Daily Mirror