Sri Lankan rebels deny child recruitment: report

COLOMBO (AFP) – Sri Lanka's cornered Tamil Tiger rebels denied Wednesday UN reports of forcibly recruiting child soldiers ahead of a final showdown with advancing government troops.

"We categorically deny the recruitment of anyone below an 18-year limit," the head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam's (LTTE) political wing, B. Nadesan told the pro-rebel Tamilnet.com website.

The UN children's agency (UNICEF) accused the rebels of stepping up their recruitment of civilians, forcibly conscripting children as young as 14.

The Tigers, who are cornered in a small patch of jungle, have a long record of using child soldiers, and have recruited more than 6,000 since 2002 according to UNICEF.

As well as denying the charge, Nadesan alleged that the Sri Lankan army had killed, tortured and imprisoned Tamil teenagers suspected of having rebel links.

He also said thousands of children had been killed, maimed or left in the grip of malnutrition by the army's offensive against the LTTE in northern Sri Lanka.

Government troops are on the verge of crushing the LTTE and ending their 37-year campaign for an independent Tamil homeland after a series of victories across the northeast of the island.

The Tigers pledged 10 years ago to end the enlistment of child soldiers but have repeatedly failed to fulfil the promise.

Tamil Tiger rebels have been accued of using civilians as cover to launch attacks against government forces, a charge also repeatedly made by the military, international aid agencies and the United Nations.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says a humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding in the northern region, where the military says it has slowed an offensive to crush the rebels out of concern for civilians.

Recruitment of child soldiers upsets UNICEF

Colombo: UNICEF officials yesterday expressed serious concern about children caught up in the conflict in the northern part of Sri Lanka and urged both sides — the government and Tamil rebels — to provide protection to civilians.

“UNICEF reiterates the call it has made time and again to the government and the LTTE (Tamil rebels) that civilians, especially children, must be given every protection from the fighting,” the UN agency said in a statement.

The organisation said there were clear indications that the Tamil rebels had intensified forcible recruitment of civilians, and children as young as 14 were being targeted.

“The children are facing immediate danger and their lives are at great risk. Their recruitment is intolerable,” UNICEF’s representative in Sri Lanka Philippe Duamelle was quoted as saying in a statement.

UNICEF said it had recorded 6,000 cases of child recruitment by the LTTE from 2003 to end of 2008. UNICEF also said it was extremely alarmed at the high number of children being injured in the fighting in the northern area of Sri Lanka.

“Children are victims of this conflict by being killed, injured, recruited, displaced, separated and denied their every-day needs due to the fighting,” UNICEF said.

They said the main injuries to children have been burns, fractures, shrapnel and bullet wounds. The UNICEF call came as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) evacuated some 440 civilians, including children and women, by sea from the areas of fighting in the north-eastern part of the country.

Fighting is taking place in the Mullaittivu district where the Tamil rebels are reported to be confined to an area of 140 square kilometres.

But at least 100,000 civilians are also reported to be trapped in the area, after some 34,000 left the area following intense fighting between security forces and the rebels.

Tamil rebels have prevented civilians from leaving the area, fearing it would then be easy for the security forces to enter the area. A moderate Tamil political party in Sri Lanka Tuesday called on President Mahinda Rajapaksa to direct the armed forces to stop aerial bombing and firing artillery until all trapped civilians are brought to safety.

V Anandasangaree, who heads the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) and had been critical of the rebels, said in a statement that 288 persons had been killed and 766 injured last week in the fighting.

But Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa denied the possibility of mass civilian casualties, saying that among them are Tamil rebels dressed in civilian clothing.

Government troops launched military offensives to recapture Tamil rebel held areas in the north and eastern provinces in August, 2006 and since then have captured almost all areas held by the rebels.

Military leaders say they are now engaged in the final phase of the campaign, ending the rebel movement that has been fighting for the last 25 years. Government officials say they are on the verge of crushing the rebels’ quarter-century war for a breakaway state for the nation’s Tamil minority.