II. Forced Recruitment of Adults and Children as Soldiers

Human Rights Watch has long documented abuses by the LTTE, particularly the LTTE's systematic recruitment and use of children as soldiers.[5] In recent years, international pressure on the LTTE, increased monitoring of its practices by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), and other factors have led to a significant decline in its known recruitment of children, from 1,494 reported child recruitment cases in 2002 to 166 in 2007.[6] Twenty-six cases were reported to UNICEF in the first 10 months of 2008,[7] although escalating hostilities and limited access by international child protection agencies may result in significant under-reporting.

According to UNICEF, as of October 31, 2008, there were 1,424 cases of children recruited by the LTTE whose fate remains unknown. Of this number, 108 remain under the age of 18.[8]

Despite the reduced number of reported child recruitment cases, several reports suggest that the LTTE has increasingly targeted children in the Vanni for recruitment in recent months. Humanitarian agencies operating in the Vanni prior to the September 2008 expulsion documented a number of cases where LTTE cadre went to villages and IDP locations and organized rallies specifically targeted at 15 to 17 year-olds, urging them to volunteer for the LTTE and join the battle.[9] The staff of a nongovernmental organization (NGO) active in the education sector in the Vanni also documented several cases where LTTE cadre went to address students aged between 14 and 17 at their schools, urging them to join the LTTE.[10]

The government-ordered withdrawal of UN and humanitarian agencies significantly weakened the ability of UNICEF and other protection agencies to monitor and respond to child recruitment practices by the LTTE. UNICEF has been unable to receive and verify cases of child recruitment in the Vanni since the September withdrawal.[11] There have been a number of credible reports of underage recruitment by the LTTE since the humanitarian withdrawal, but international agencies have been unable to independently confirm these reports. Government agencies on the ground report that the LTTE has not massively expanded its underage recruitment policies out of fear of losing public support from the local population.[12]

One particular practice of the LTTE is to recruit children when they turn 17 for military training, apparently calculating that by the time such cases are reported to protection agencies, the recruited children will have turned 18 and will no longer be considered child soldiers. This trend towards recruiting older children is borne out by UNICEF statistics. In 2002, the average age of children who were reported recruited by the LTTE was 14. By 2007, the average age had risen to 16, and in 2008, the average age was 17.[13]

Through village-level officials, the LTTE closely monitors families. As soon as a boy or girl turns 17, they are forced to join the LTTE for military training. According to a humanitarian official from the Vanni:

Last year they were taking the people born in 1990-now those born in 1991. They look at the family identity cards and take the young ones. If people of military age go into hiding, they will take younger children or the father, until they get the boys or girls they want."[14]

LTTE officials also have threatened affected families not to report child recruitment cases to UN and humanitarian agencies. UN and humanitarian protection staff involved in monitoring recruitment practices themselves came under increasing pressure from the LTTE's administrative center in Kilinochchi in the months prior to their government-ordered expulsion in September. This resulted in a number of Tamil national staff refusing to work in the Vanni because of fear of LTTE threats.[15]

International law prohibits the recruitment of children under the age of 18 by non-state armed groups or the participation of children in active hostilities. The recruitment of children under the age of 15 is a war crime.[16]

The LTTE has also increased the forced recruitment of adults. Each family in LTTE-controlled territory is required to "volunteer" one family member for service in the LTTE military. According to several sources, the LTTE has recently expanded its recruitment practices beyond "one person per family" in some cases, requiring families to volunteer two or more family members at the same time, depending on the overall size of the family.[17] The LTTE has also forcibly re-mobilized all former LTTE fighters, including former fighters who were originally recruited as children and former fighters who had since married (previously, married persons were exempted from forced recruitment), in an apparent effort to boost their ranks with experienced fighters.

An eyewitness who visited the Vanni in mid-November 2008 expressed his concern about the levels of forced recruitment in the Vanni:

The recruitment process of the LTTE is going on at high speed. The rule of one person per family that was applied earlier last year is [now] more than one person per family. Every male from the age of 18 to 45 has to compulsorily go through a two week [military] training course for engagement in the battlefield and they are given an identity tag after such training. Families shudder even to think of their breadwinner or [another family member] being [forced to go to the battlefield] without [the family's] knowledge and even in the dead of the night. Many children refuse to go to school as they do not want to [find] their father or elder brother missing on their return. [When ordered], they have to leave for the battlefield, and many such people are brought back home dead. All the former cadre who had left the LTTE and had married and settled down with their families are all being re-recruited and their families are rendered miserable.[18]

The fear engendered by the LTTE's forced recruitment practices were underscored when the LTTE withdrew from the Omanthai area north of Vavuniya in mid-November 2008. Soon thereafter, more than 300 civilians from villages in northern Vavuniya district previously under the control of the LTTE approached the Sri Lankan army near the Omanthai checkpoint in small groups[19] and were detained and brought to public buildings under military guard in the Menik Farm area, where they remain. According to a source who visited the Menik camp and interviewed some of the detained arrivals, many of these were single young men and women who had been hiding in the jungles of northern Vavuniya district in order to avoid LTTE forced recruitment. They had fled the area as soon as the LTTE withdrew.[20] They reported that the LTTE had stopped many other young men from fleeing: one group of three young men from a particular village stated that they had been part of a group of 30 people that had try to flee, but that the LTTE had stopped the others from leaving.[21] Other displaced persons reported to humanitarian officials that they believed that many other people had been caught by the LTTE while trying to flee.[22] According to a priest who visits the Vanni regularly, many of the individuals and families who fled the Vanni earlier and are now being kept in detention camps in Kalimoddai and Sirunkandal[23] also fled to escape recruitment, or the recruitment of their children.[24]

In September 2008, the LTTE publicly announced a stricter punitive policy for those who try to avoid recruitment: the LTTE said that if persons called up for military service flee, it would arrest up to 10 of their relatives and use them for hazardous forced labor, building military reinforcements on the frontlines. An international humanitarian official told Human Rights Watch about the 21-year-old son of a local staff member who went into hiding when the LTTE tried to recruit him. In response, the LTTE arrested the local staff member, his wife's brother, and other male relatives, until the recruited son came out of hiding and agreed to fight for the LTTE.[25]

Humanitarian workers have not been exempt from LTTE recruitment, despite promises by the LTTE that they would refrain from harassing or recruiting NGO and humanitarian workers. During the government-ordered withdrawal from the Vanni, many NGOs and UN agencies had to leave local staff behind.[26] Some are known to have been forcibly recruited for service in the LTTE. One female humanitarian worker in her mid-20s was ordered to report for military service by the LTTE the day before she was scheduled to depart from the Vanni. Several others who had prior LTTE military experience from when they had themselves been recruited as child soldiers were also not allowed to leave the Vanni by the LTTE, probably so they could be called up for military service in case of need.[27] Several private UN security guards (not UN staff members) were also forcibly recruited by the LTTE in the months prior to the withdrawal: although the UN originally allowed the security guards to remain within the UN compounds for their safety, after LTTE pressure on the UN agencies, the guards were allegedly asked to leave the UN compound and the LTTE forcibly recruited the guards.[28]

International humanitarian law prohibits all parties to armed conflicts from arbitrarily depriving any person of their liberty, including through abductions and forced recruitment. Parties must treat all civilians humanely-arbitrary deprivation of liberty is incompatible with this requirement.[29]