Media Release : Thursday, 20 January 2005

International Appeal to Condemn LTTE’s ongoing Violation of the UN’s Charter for Protecting the Rights of the Child

National and international organisations have reported the significant loss of LTTE cadres to the Boxing Day tsunami. SPUR and a number of NGO’s operating in Sri Lanka warned the Sri Lankan Government and the international community of LTTE’s strategy to harvest children either displaced or orphaned by the tsunami.  This is a heinous crime.

There is irrefutable evidence to support warnings given by SPUR that the LTTE has begun its barbaric practice of abducting children from refugee camps for displaced people later to be trained as child soldiers to replace dead cadres. 

This inhuman practice has to be stopped at once.

We urge the Government of Sri Lanka, the international community (including the World Bank and the ADB) and national and international NGO’s to strongly condemn as well as expose the LTTE for what they are, an ill disciplined marauding band of vicious racist terrorists.

Human Rights Watch of USA and UNICEF are two organisations leading the fight against LTTE’s child recruitment.

Human Rights Watch said that the Tamil Tigers, who already use large numbers of child soldiers, now may seek to replace forces lost to the tsunami with child recruits.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) reported on 13 January on three cases of children recruited from camps for tsunami survivors in Batticaloa and Ampara, on Sri Lanka's eastern coast. Human Rights Watch has received additional information on LTTE recruitment of children in Trincomalee and Jaffna.

"The Tamil Tigers are preying on the most vulnerable by taking advantage of children who have been orphaned or displaced by the tsunami," said Jo Becker, children's rights advocacy director for Human Rights Watch. "Every effort must be made to stop this unconscionable recruiting from families who have already suffered so much."

The suffering of the children is exacerbated when one examines closely the statements made by some TNA members of parliament when the Prime Minster of Canada, Paul Martin queried from them about LTTE’s child abduction activities. These allies and apologists for the LTTE rediculed democracy when they made a crude attempt to justify the LTTE’s inhumanity by sheepishly stating that the LTTE’s taking these children away for humanitarian purposes.

SPUR was not surprised by the TNA MP’s ludicrous utterances, as there are serious doubts about their independence from the LTTE and the path adopted by some TNA members to enter Sri Lanka’s august parliament. 

We urge Sri Lanka’s Government and the international community to adopt the following practices immediately to stop LTTE’s cruel abduction of children and to protect innocent Tamil children. These include:

(1) Appointing armed security personnel, preferably the STF to all refugee camps (to protect the human rights of the children living in the camps;

(2) Taking and publishing a census of all the children living in the camps with special focus on children orphaned by the tsunami;

(3) Castigating and holding the LTTE accountable at each and every meeting that either the Government, international donor agencies or NGO’s hold with the LTTE to discuss relief aid; and

(4) Holding the TRO in Sri Lanka responsible for protecting the human rights of children living in shelters in the uncleared areas in the North and East of Sri Lanka.  If the TRO wants to “walk the talk” they need to reconfirm their commitment to democracy and protecting human rights. The TRO has to demonstrate to the world that they embrace and fully subscribe to human rights and democratic values as they are accused and suspected of working hand in glove with the LTTE; which is implementing an ethnic cleansing strategy to establish the racist Eelam in the North and East of Sri Lanka.

The onus is on TRO Sri Lanka to demonstrate its independence from the LTTE.

SPUR urges all agencies promoting democracy to refuse dealing with the LTTE unless they are capable of reciprocating with actions that indicate their willingness to desist terror.

The Government of Sri Lanka and the international community must work with NGO’s with proven track records operating at the ground level, such as Red Cross and Oxfarm when distributing aid to tsunami affected Tamil people in areas currently controlled by the LTTE.

This will ensure that aid reaches the community which is mostly in need of help whilst minimising wilful mis-mangement by the LTTE.

Thanking you,

Yours sincerely,

Dr D Jayasuriya 

President

Society for Peace, Unity and Human Rights in Sri Lanka (SPUR)

Reg No. A 003 07777 M

PO Box 4066

Mulgrave    VIC 3170

Australia