Child Soldiers of LTTE Tamil Tigers
2003 Archive

Tigers 'still enlisting' children
BBC: December 30, 2003 : Tamil Tiger rebels in Sri Lanka are continuing to recruit child soldiers - despite promises not to, international ceasefire monitors say. The monitors say they received more than 80 complaints of child recruitment by the Tigers in October alone.
That was the month when the rebels and the United Nations opened a joint rehabilitation centre for former child soldiers in Sri Lanka's civil war. The centre has received no new children since the first 40 arrived.
Just hours after the Tamil Tigers opened the UN-sponsored transit home in October, there were reliable reports they had abducted 23 children in one town in the east of the island.
The United Nations children's agency, Unicef, however, only managed to confirm four of the cases of under-aged recruitment - probably because parents were too frightened to come forward after the media publicity. [Full Story]

CHILD SOLDIERS
Implications for US Forces Seminar
Seminar Report
Center for Emerging Threats and Opportunities: December 02, 2004
Children are vulnerable and easy targets for recruitment, and are a quick, easy, low-cost way of generating forces. Groups that otherwise would have no real military power can pose a significant threat by augmenting their ranks with child soldiers. According to Ms. Becker of Human Rights Watch, rebel groups and some national militaries offer incentives to soldiers for bringing in new recruits, such as promotions, money or even early discharges from service, exacerbating the forced recruitment of children.

......
Demoralizing Effects. Battles that involve killing children often have a very demoralizing effect on professional combat forces from countries where children are protected and their rights are valued. Close to the end of the Second World War, when US forces were engaged in combat with units from the Hitler Youth, their morale was at its lowest when it should have been at its highest. If this level of loss of morale can occur in battles where right from wrong and dictatorship versus democracy is so clearly present, what level of demoralization can arise in units engaged in peace operations where good versus evil and right from wrong is much less clear? In Sri Lanka, for example, Indian troops fighting the insurgent group the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) experienced serious losses of morale because they frequently found themselves engaged in battles against children who populated the ranks of the LTTE. [Full Story]

LTTE women abduct girl demanding her brother rejoins them
The Island: October 28, 2003 : LTTE women cadres have recently abducted a 22-year-old girl from Thambiluwil in Akkaraipattu demanding that her brother rejoins LTTE who had escaped after three months of training.

The complaint had been made on June 25 to the Akkaraipattu police by the mother of the victim identified as Kanapathipillai Jeyanthini (22), the elder sister of Kanapathipillai Sujeewan (20).

Women LTTE cadres who were accommodated at the near-by office established under the guise of political activities had taken her by force saying that to return the daughter the son should be surrendered to the LTTE. It is believed that she had been taken to the Tharavai camp in Batticaloa.

He had been recruited to the LTTE two years ago and given armed training at the Tharavai camp in Batticaloa.

Sources said that a complaint had been made to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) at Akkaraipattu and the SLMM in turn had requested that a complaint be made to the police. [Full Story]

Child soldiers still being recruited
Sunday Observer: October 26, 2003 : Over 1,189 child soldiers below the age of 16, recruited by the LTTE from the North and East, are still in LTTE custody, UNICEF official told the Sunday Observer.

According to UNICEF's data of over 1,775 cases of underage recruitment had been reported till October. These cases had also been reported to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCHR) and other partner organisations.

While 22 children have been recruited by the LTTE upto October 15, official pointed out that 80 child soldiers from the Ampara District and the 383 from Batticaloa were still in LTTE custody. However, 13 children below the age of 16, were handed over to their families, on October 15. Another seven were released in Ampara, last Saturday. Sarah Epstein, UNICEF Communication officer said that the Action Plan for Children Affected by War signed by both the government and the LTTE was a great opportunity for the LTTE to hand over child soldiers to their families. " For the Action Plan to be successful all new recruitment of children has to stop", she stressed.

Commenting on new recruitment, she said that it was a gross violation of children's rights and is completely unacceptable." UNICEF has continuously been calling for an end to recruitment and child soldiers in Sri Lanka", she said adding that the UNICEF has been fully exercising its mandate of ensuring that no child under 18 is in the armed group. [Full Story]

Trincomalee: Fear is the key
Sunday Times: October 23, 2003 : [Full Story]

Fear of LTTE abductions prevents schooling in East
The Island: October 18, 2003 : In the East parents are not taking any chances, many have stopped their children from going out and some have even stopped their children from going to school because of the fear of LTTE abducting their children, says CNN’s Colombo Correspondent Kasra Naji who toured Batticaloa this week.

In a special report filed from Batticaloa Naji says that the rebels have stepped up recruitment of children at a time when they have made a commitment to releasing their child soldiers. He reveals that the LTTE is abducting unsuspecting children at the rate of nearly two a day. A seventeen-year-old girl had told CNN that she was worried about her safety and her future. She had questioned, " What guarantee is there?" A sixteen-year-old boy had expressed his fears wanting to know how things could go on at the present rate. He had said he could not concentrate on his exams. [Full Story]

Sri Lanka's Rebels Recruiting Child Soldiers Again - UNICEF
United Nations Foundation: October 15, 2003 : UNICEF has said that Sri Lanka's Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebels are recruiting children for the army again, after agreeing during peace talks earlier this year to release child soldiers and stop abducting them, CNN.com reported yesterday.

According to UNICEF at least 52 children were recruited last month alone. A local clergyman interviewed by the news agency speculated that the actual numbers could be 10 times higher, since many parents do not report the abductions out of fear of the rebels.

"It is like an ogre that descends from the hills once in a while and takes children away," said Father Harry Miller, a Jesuit priest from the United States. "Each time, everybody hopes it is not their child, but sometime or the other it would be the turn of their child."

CNN.com reports that last week, for the first time, parents and students protested against the abduction of children by the LTTE, which, according to Father Miller, is "desperately in need of getting new recruits, because they have lost so many." The LTTE reportedly expects Tamil families to send at least one son or daughter to fight for the cause of a homeland for Sri Lanka's Tamil minority. [Full Story]

Sri Lanka's stolen children
CNN: October 14, 2004
The U.N. agency for children's rights, UNICEF, says it received reports that 52 children were recruited in September. But the actual figure could be ten times higher as many parents fear the rebels and don't report when children are abducted, according to Father Harry Miller, 78, an American Jesuit priest who has made Batticaloa his home for the past fifty years.

"It is like an ogre that descends from the hills once in a while and takes children away," he told CNN.

"Each time, everybody hopes it is not their child, but some time or the other it would be the turn of their child.''

Last week, parents and school children in the small and poor town of Valachchenai, an hour's drive north of Batticaloa, took a rare stand.

They blocked the road outside the school and demanded the return of abducted children.

This was the first such action taken by terrified people in the north and east of Sri Lanka after some twenty children were abducted in a few days around the town. [Full Story]

LTTE hunt for children on the rise
The Island: October 09, 2003 : The University Teacher for Human Rights - Jaffna (UTHR[J]) in its latest report points out that the LTTE continues with forcible conscription and forcible induction of children for war and abduction of parents whose children escape, to work in forced labour camps. For the past few months, the report says, the LTTE has forcibly conscripted/inducted about 50 children, some in the government-controlled areas.

The LTTE on Saturday within less than 24 hours of opening of a UNICEF-TRO transit home for child combatants abducted about 24 persons including 15 children causing the UNICEF to lose face. The TRO is a notorious terror ally and the UNICEF has drawn fire over having an LTTE front as a partner in the project.

Chairman of the National Child Protection Authority, Prof. Harendra de Silva has gone on record stressing the futility of such projects so long as the LTTE continues to recruit children. [Full Story]

Abduction of children breach of international law, says SLMM
Daily News: October 08, 2003 : Scandinavian truce monitors yesterday called Saturday's abduction of children in Valachchenai a breach of international law and said they were trying to secure their release. "It is a serious breach of international law which is the foundation of the ceasefire agreement," SLMM deputy chief Hagruph Haukland told the Daily news.

"The ceasefire agreement has no word about underage recruitment, but it is covered by the international law which all parties are obliged to respect". The exact number of abductions is not yet verified. The SLMM is in the process of verifying the exact figure. [Full Story]

LTTE's child conscription unacceptable - UNICEF
The Island: October 08, 2003 : The United Nations International Children’s Education Fund (UNICEF) yesterday claimed that continued recruitment of children by the LTTE was ‘completely unacceptable’ and was a serious violation of children’s rights. The UNICEF on Friday (03) opened the first transit centre at Kilinochchi to end child recruitment and marked the release of some child soldiers under the LTTE.

The UNICEF in a statement yesterday said:
"UNICEF today verified a number of cases of child recruitment by the LTTE in Valachchenai. Ted Chaiban, Representative for the UN agency stated, "UNICEF teams on the ground are working to verify the exact numbers of children recruited, but the numbers are not the issue - the recruitment of just one child is a serious violation of children’s rights. This continued recruitment of children is completely unacceptable and this type of action undermines the work and commitment of the LTTE towards making the Action Plan for Children Affected by War a success." [Full Story]

Demo to release children
The Island: October 08, 2003 : (AFP) - Tamil Tiger rebels abducted 15 students to boost their ranks a day after freeing 49 child soldiers under a foreign-funded demobilisation program, the monitors of Sri Lanka’s truce said Monday. The Norwegian-led Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission said about 250 parents and students staged a demonstration in the town of Valachchenai Monday demanding the release of the children abducted on Saturday.

"Our monitors went to the scene and were told that the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) forcibly took away 15 children and only three of them had been freed," the monitors’ spokeswoman Agnes Bragadottir said. She said the truce monitors were trying to arrange a meeting between the Tiger leadership and the Tamil parents in a bid to secure the release of the children. [Full Story]

Outrage over Tiger child soldiers
BBC: October 07, 2003 : The United Nations children's agency, Unicef, has fiercely criticised Tamil Tiger rebels for recent child conscription in Sri Lanka. As many as 23 children were abducted at the weekend by the rebels, according to reports from the small town of Valachchenai in the east of the island. The abductions came just hours after the Tigers inaugurated a programme with Unicef on Friday to return child soldiers to their families.

Unicef said child recruitment by the Tigers was "completely unacceptable".

Unusual protest
A statement said the agency had verified a number of cases of forcible child recruitment by the Tamil Tigers in the last few days. But it added that the number of cases was not the issue - the abduction of even a single child was a serious violation. Unicef pointed out that continued child recruitment undermined the rebels' stated commitment to demobilise child soldiers and it called for the immediate release of those abducted.

On Monday, hundreds of schoolchildren in Valachchenai staged an unprecedented protest against the abduction of their friends by the Tamil Tigers - sitting on the road and blocking the traffic.

The protest has continued for a second day, but is now confined to a handful of schoolchildren inside their compound. [Full Story]

UNICEF criticises Tamil Tigers on child soldiers
Yahoo News: October 07, 2003 : COLOMBO (Reuters) - The U.N. children's agency blasted the Tamil Tiger rebels on Tuesday for abducting more children in eastern Sri Lanka just days after it opened a centre to return their child soldiers to civilian life.

The issue of child soldiers is considered a litmus test of the sincerity of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as they prepare to restart peace talks with the government to end two decades of civil war.

"The time for child soldiers in Sri Lanka is now over and UNICEF has called on the LTTE to immediately release these children," said Ted Chaiban, the agency's country representative, adding UNICEF had verified five new cases. [Full Story]

Tigers abduct more children from ‘govt. areas’
The Island: October 07, 2003 :
As UNICEF-funded scheme to demob child fighters gets underway
The LTTE abducted at least 24 persons including several students at Valaichchenai on Saturday, a day after a UNICEF funded scheme to demobilise forcibly conscripted child soldiers got underway in Kilinochchi. "We believe at least eight students were among the abducted. They were taken in and around Valaichchenai in the government-held area in the evening," an authoritative army official told The Island.

The Batticaloa office of the Scandinavian ceasefire monitors has been informed of the latest bout of abductions. Hundreds of students and their parents on Monday protested outside a government school at Valaichchenai. They urged the truce monitors to intervene. [Full Story]

Parents demand release of 15 abducted children
Daily News: October 07, 2003 : Parents and schoolchildren yesterday took to the streets in the Eastern town of Valachchenai demanding the release of 15 children abducted by the LTTE on Saturday, merely a day since the Tigers ceremonious release of the first batch of child soldiers.

A spokeswoman for the Scandinavian truce monitors said they have been informed of the abduction of a group of children by the Tigers on Saturday.

"We have unconfirmed reports that several children have been abducted in Saturday evening around 6-7," SLMM spokeswoman Agnes Bragadottier told the Daily News. She said the SLMM was unaware of how many children were abducted. But the local sources put the number at 15.

"We are now investigating the issue and in contact with the LTTE leadership to know how many children are in their custody and to get them released as soon as possible," Bragadottier said. Some 250 schoolchildren and residents blocked the roads in Valachchenai chanting slogans in protest of the kidnapping. [Full Story]

Tamil Tigers Resume Child Kidnappings
BBC World Service: October 07, 2003 : In a publicly acclaimed ceremony, the Sri Lankan 'Tamil Tigers' rebel group recently freed some of its child soldiers—hours before kidnapping 23 more. COLOMBO, SRI LANKA—The United Nations children's agency, UNICEF, has fiercely criticised Tamil Tiger rebels for recent child conscription in Sri Lanka. As many as 23 children were abducted at the weekend by the rebels, according to reports from the small town of Valachchenai in the east of the island.

The abductions came just hours after the Tigers inaugurated a programme with UNICEF on Friday to return child soldiers to their families.
UNICEF said child recruitment by the Tigers was "completely unacceptable". [Full Story]

Sri Lanka: In the Tigers' Belly
WorldPressReview: April 22, 2003 : The road was framed on both sides by barbed wire fences warning passers-by that there were landmines throughout the area, cautioning children not to play in the fields. As we lurched and swerved to avoid the craters caused by the rushing waters of the rainy season, I was grateful that I had been too nervous to eat anything for breakfast that morning.

....As talks have progressed, the LTTE continues to recruit child soldiers, to kidnap teenagers and force them to join the cadres. The government soldiers continue to rape women at checkpoints and engage in all manner of abuses, and yet Sri Lanka’s prospects remain positive. Hotel chains, in anticipation of a peace dividend, are rebuilding their facilities on the east coast. Others have been closing for expensive renovations. “As much as I detest the term,” U.S. Ambassador Ashley Wills said, “I’m cautiously optimistic.”

The LTTE often used peace negotiations to buy time to rearm and regroup. This time, perhaps because the political climate has decidedly shifted against such groups, the LTTE has been more restrained, and money from the Tamil diaspora cannot easily reach the LTTE. Once the money began drying up, the LTTE became more amenable to negotiation. [Full Story]

State Department Required to Report on Use of Child Soldiers
cdi.org: April 22, 2003 : On March 31, 2003, the U.S. State Department released the 27th annual Country Reports on Human Rights. The reports detail information on 196 countries compiled by Foreign Service Officers abroad, domestic and international human rights groups, academics, activists, jurists and journalists that work to recount human rights conditions around the globe.
....While each report has traditionally assessed internationally recognized human rights as per the Universal Declaration of Human Rights including respect for — the integrity of the person, civil liberties, political rights, workers rights and discrimination — this year's reports include a new section. In accordance with the Foreign Relations Authorization Act of FY 03, State Department human reports now include a section on child soldiers. The reports contain a description of the "nature and extent of the compulsory recruitment and conscription of individuals under the age of 18" by all armed groups in the country, and what steps have been taken by the government of the country to eliminate such practices. [Full Story]

LTTE recruiting child soldiers amid peace talks
Indiainfo: March 19, 2003 : Colombo: A Human Rights organisation in Sri Lanka has accused Tamil Tiger rebels of recruiting child soldiers despite ongoing peace talks and pledges given to international envoys.

The independent University Teachers for Human Rights (UTHR) said in a report on March 19 that the guerrillas had conscripted thousands of children since 2001, most of them from the embattled Eastern Batticaloa district. The report said the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had reneged on promises made to UN and other organisations.

The latest pledge was made to Carol Bellamy, head of United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), who met Tiger leaders in their Northern headquarters in January to urge them to discontinue using child soldiers. "UTHR is particularly concerned about the LTTE's duplicity regarding its continued recruitment of child soldiers," the report said. "Even as the talks with UNICEF were taking place, the LTTE was conscripting children and threatening parents to be silent." [Full Story]

Tigers flout pledge on child soldiers
Sunday Times: February 23, 2003 : [Full Story]

The Legacy of Child Soldiers in the LTTE
Asia Child Rights: February 12, 2003 : Recruitment of children by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the Sri Lankan insurgency group that has been fighting for the dignity of the minority Tamilian population in Sri Lanka, is a well-established fact. There have been constant concerns since the ceasefire between the rebels and the government regarding the continuing recruitment of children into 'baby brigade' within the LTTE.

The fifth round of peace talks between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government that were held in Berlin on the 7-8th February, brought a ray of hope for demolition of the 'baby brigade' and the end of child recruitments into the LTTE. With immense international pressure, especially from the UNICEF, the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission's (SLMM) initiative and President Kumaratunge's widely publisized letters to the army and the police to investigate child abductions by the LTTE, the issue of child soldiers became the central theme of the fifth session in the peace process. The process of demobilisation of the LTTE baby brigade received it's first boost on the eve of the fifth session when chief negotiator Dr. Anton Balasinghamthe and rebel political wing leader, S.P. Thamil Chelvam assured UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy that the LTTE would release and rehabilitate it's under-age cadres recruited for war.

This assurance shattered one of the major barriers for the LTTE- it's continuous denial of the existence of child soldiers among it's ranks. However, the assurances given by senior officials did not end the complains received by human rights organizations regarding the continuing recruitment of children. [Full Story]

YOUNG BOYS GET MARRIED TO AVOID LTTE RECRUITMENTS
Asia Child Rights: February 07, 2003
Children as young as 15 years old get married in order to avoid being forced to become combatants by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). According to the rebels code, married men cannot be recruited. Children who are unmarried are often recruited into the LTTE and forced to sever all family ties and carry cyanide tablets so that they can commit suicide in case they are captured.

Young teen couples can be seen all over the north-eastern regions of Sri Lanka as parents rush to get their children married off as soon as possible. The legal age for marriage in Sri Lanka is 18. [Source: The Straits Times] [Full Story]

Stop recruiting child soldiers, Chandrika appeals to LTTE
The Hindu: February 04, 2003 : The Sri Lankan President, Chandrika Kumaratunga, today appealed to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to stop recruiting child soldiers and sought a guarantee from the peace negotiators that the core issues of the conflict would be taken up "without delay.''

She made the appeal as part of her message to the nation on the eve of the 55th Independence Day celebrations.

"I wish to make a special appeal to the LTTE: please do not recruit children for armed conflict. Children are the most precious treasure of any community any country; indeed of the world.'' [Full Story]

Human Rights Watch Publication
Human Rights Watch: January, 2003 : The armed opposition group, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) continued to recruit and use children in violation of international law.240 In January, the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), set up to monitor the implementation of peace negotiations, reported an overall decrease in child soldier recruitment during previous months. However, media reports suggested there was an increase in the number of documented cases in January 2003,241 and in February UNICEF stated it still had more than 700 complaints of child recruitment “on its books”.242 Both UNICEF and local organizations stated that many other cases could have gone unreported.243 The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers also received confidential information to suggest that in many cases children were recruited to the LTTE without the knowledge of their families, causing distress to parents once they realized their children had gone.244

In February 2003, an LTTE spokesperson said “the LTTE has made a solemn pledge to UNICEF to cease all recruitment of underage children…whenever children want to join we will now check their ages.”245 He also claimed that senior LTTE military leaders had been discharged following child recruitment investigations.246 However, later the same month a local newspaper reported a woman’s complaint to the Central Camp police station in Ampara about an LTTE threat to kill her if she did not give them her son, who supposedly had recently escaped from an LTTE camp.247 Later in February, the LTTE ordered a general strike in parts of the Trincomalee district in protest of the arrest of two of their female members on charges of abduction of two schoolgirls.248

On 20 March 2003, a child soldier was killed from gunshot wounds received during training at an LTTE camp in northwest Sri Lanka.249 The LTTE allegedly invited the boy’s parents to attend a service at the camp having refused to return his body to the family.250 Also in March, a report by the University Teachers for Human Rights (UTHR) documented several child abduction cases, indicating that most kidnappings occurred while children, many under 15, were returning from school in both government and LTTE-controlled territories [Full Story]