LTTE threatens families and aid workers in North- AI

24th July 2007
The LTTE must immediately keep to its pledge to the UN and return all remaining child soldiers held by it to their families and engage in transparent procedures with UNICEF to reunite remaining child soldiers with their families, states Amnesty International (AI) in a Public Statement on Sri Lanka. AI says it had received reports in April 2007 that the LTTE were active in recruiting children in Madhu in Mannar District in preparation for future military battles in the North.

Meanwhile there are increasing reports from news agencies, diplomats and the Peace Secretariat of increased LTTE threats to Tamil families and aid workers in the North, with the LTTE acting to increase its fighting cadres.

Reuters reporting from Kilinochchi last Friday (July 20) said many residents in the LTTE heartland in the north said the Tigers are demanding every family contribute at least one member to the movement. They tell of how brothers, sisters, sons and daughters have been taken against their will to camps to be trained as fighters, and how they are helpless to prevent it.

The Secretary General of the Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process (The Peace Secretariat) has drawn the attention of the Co-Chairs on the Sri Lanka Peace Process to recent reports that the LTTE is in the process of recruiting one member from each family in areas under its control, for possible military purposes.

In its Public statement of July 10, 2007 AI calls on the LTTE leadership *

To fulfill the pledge to end child recruitment and end the practice of abduction, recruitment and use of children under the age of 18; *

To immediately engage in transparent procedures with UNICEF for release of child soldiers directly to their families and verification of demobilization of all children; *

To cooperate with UNICEF by sharing information and providing UNICEF representatives with unimpeded access to LTTE military camps with a view to putting an end to violations and abuses perpetrated against children.

Here is the text of the AI Public Statement:

On 18 June 2007 the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) released 135 child soldiers and pledged to rid its ranks of all children under 18 by the end of the year. Amnesty International welcomes the release of these soldiers as well as the commitment by the LTTE to stop child recruitment. The LTTE must immediately return all remaining child soldiers to their families and engage in transparent procedures with UNICEF to reunite remaining child soldiers with their families.

UNICEF records a significant drop in LTTE recruitment of children saying that recent releases of children from their ranks outstripped new recruitment. Nonetheless many child soldiers remain in their ranks. UNICEF, which has had direct talks with the LTTE on the release of underage soldiers, said at least 1,591 still remained at the end of May 2007.1 The figure included 506 who are under the age of 18, and 1,085 who were recruited when they were under 18 but who have now passed that age.

The LTTE has a long history of recruiting minors as soldiers. Prior to the 2002 ceasefire agreement, the LTTE routinely used children in combat, including high profile battles in which children often suffered high rates of casualties. Over the last two and a half decades of conflict, families living in the conflict areas of the North and East of Sri Lanka have been targeted for recruitment by the LTTE. In the past the LTTE have enforced a “one family, one child” policy in areas under its control instructing Tamil households that each family was obliged to provide a son or a daughter for “the cause.” There is no excuse or acceptable argument for using children as combatants.

A Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) between the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE was signed in February 2002. At the peace talks which followed, the parties asked UNICEF to develop an Action Plan for Children Affected by War to monitor report on and address child rights violations in the North East. In June 2003, the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE jointly signed the Action Plan for Children Affected by War. One of the commitments made by the LTTE under the Action Plan was that they would stop recruiting children into its ranks, whether voluntarily or through coercion. Throughout 2004 UNICEF issued press statements saying that the LTTE were not living up to their commitments to stop recruiting children.

The 2002 ceasefire effectively collapsed last year. As hostilities between the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE intensified in 2006, Amnesty International received reports of intensified recruitment in the Vanni, the area to the south of the Jaffna peninsula largely controlled by the LTTE. In April 2007 Amnesty received reports that the LTTE were active in recruiting children in Madhu in Mannar District in preparation for future military battles in the North.

The UN Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict in a report on Sri Lanka released on 20 December 2006 notes, ‘although limited progress has been made in the release of some children from the LTTE over the last three years, the refusal of the LTTE to completely cease recruitment and use of children, release all children remaining on the UNICEF database and engage in transparent procedures for release and verification of demobilization warrants the undertaking of targeted measures against LTTE political and military leadership.’2

In May 2007, the Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict issued a statement saying that if the LTTE fails to stop recruiting children “further steps may be taken”. Ms. Coomaraswamy, UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict added that “these recommendations send a strong message to the LTTE, a repeat offender who has been on the Secretary General’s list of violators for four years”.

The LTTE are not the only armed political group recruiting children in Sri Lanka. Amnesty International has also received reliable reports of increased recruitment by other groups such as the Karuna faction.3 The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mechanism (SLMM) report for the period 11-17 June 2007 notes that 34 abductions in the space of a week were reported in the East in areas where the Karuna faction is active and this number included 16 youth. The head of UNICEF’s Sri Lanka mission noted that, “at this point the pace of recruitment by the Karuna faction is actually higher than the pace of recruitment by the Tigers”.4

Children have no role to play in war. The recruitment of children is a war crime. The LTTE and all other armed groups must pledge not to use child soldiers, cease recruitment immediately and return the children to their families.

Background

Worldwide, more than half a million children under the age of 18 have been recruited into government armed forces, paramilitaries, civil militia and a wide variety of non-state armed groups in more than 85 countries. Amnesty International aims to promote the adoption and adherence to national, regional and international legal standards (including the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child), which prohibit the military recruitment and deployment in hostilities of any person younger than 18 years of age. Amnesty International opposes the use of children under 18 as soldiers by government and armed opposition groups, whether they have been conscripted by force or joined on a voluntary basis. Amnesty International also opposes any form of recruitment, training or deployment of children under the age of 18, including for support roles such as messengers or porters.

Recommendations to LTTE leadership: 

To fulfill the pledge to end child recruitment and end the practice of abduction, recruitment and use of     children under the age of 18; 

To immediately engage in transparent procedures with UNICEF for release of child soldiers directly to their families and verification of demobilization of all children; 

To cooperate with UNICEF by sharing information and providing UNICEF representatives with unimpeded access to LTTE military camps with a view to putting an end to violations and abuses perpetrated against children.

Increased threats to families and aid workers in North

Meanwhile, Reuters reporting from Kilinochchi last Friday (July 20) said many residents in the LTTE heartland in the north said the Tigers are demanding every family contribute at least one member to the movement. They tell of how brothers, sisters, sons and daughters have been taken against their will to camps to be trained as fighters, and how they are helpless to prevent it.

Most international aid agencies now have to keep some local staff indoors, for fear of LTTE recruitment. Some of them have not been able to leave their compounds for months. NGO sources say the staff of all NGOs are getting abducted or have tremendous pressure towards them because as the LTTE wants to recruit them, states Simon Gardner, Colombo Bureau Chief of Reuters in a report from Kilinochchi filed today.

The Reuters report adds:

Many residents Reuters spoke to during a rare visit to the rebels’ heartland in the north said the Tigers are demanding every family contribute at least one member to a movement widely banned as a terrorist organization by the likes of the United States, Britain and the European Union.

They tell of how brothers, sisters, sons and daughters have been taken against their will to camps to be trained as fighters. They say they are helpless to prevent it.

The Tigers deny they insist on recruiting one person from each family, but aid workers say the demand was made earlier this year and that the rebels have promised their staff will be exempt.

Aid Staff Targeted

Reuters reports that families receive letters from the Tigers with names of members who must join underlined. Most international aid agencies have to keep some local staff indoors. Some of them have not been able to leave their compounds for months.

It quoted Arne Bangstad, programme manager of Nordic aid agency FORUT saying:

“All the NGOs in the area have great concerns towards recruitment policy. We do experience that staff of all the different NGOs are getting abducted or have tremendous pressure towards them because they want to recruit them.”

“We have been promised by the political wing that such recruitment should not take place and that the humanitarian status of the NGOs would be respected. But in practicality, we find that this is not really the case.”

The distant sound of heavy artillery fire across the front lines that separate rebel from government territory serves as a permanent reminder of what awaits those recruited.

Families helpless

The report quotes one man who insists bon anonymity saying, “One of my sons is in the LTTE. He joined 63 days ago. He did not join voluntarily. His mother is not well. After they took him her sickness got worse. What can I do, even if I get angry?”

Another man is quoted saying his underage daughter joined to meet the quota so that her elder brother could continue to be her family’s main bread winner in a district where 70 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, earning less than a dollar a day.

The United Nations Children’s agency UNICEF says the Tigers are still recruiting children despite pledges not to. UNICEF listed 1,591 outstanding cases of underage recruitment by the Tigers at the end of May. One child on its records is aged nine.

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