Letter to Prime Minister Martin

The Right Honourable Paul Martin
Prime Minister of Canada
Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa, ON
K1A 0A2

Dear Prime Minister Martin:

We are writing on behalf of Human Rights Watch regarding the Canadian government’s response to the recruitment of children by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Sri Lanka. We appreciate the opportunity to share information on this important subject, and respectfully request a meeting with your office to discuss the recommendations outlined below.

Human Rights Watch welcomed your public statement prior to your recent visit to Sri Lanka that LTTE recruitment of children “is the kind of thing which requires universal condemnation” and your commitment to raise the issue during your meetings with the Tamil National Alliance. We recognize that combating the use of children as soldiers has long been a priority for the government of Canada, as illustrated by its early ratification of the optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict, and its leading role in drafting the statute of the International Criminal Court, which identifies the recruitment and use of children under the age of fifteen as a war crime.

We also note that through CIDA, Canada has provided financial resources for work relating to children affected by Sri Lanka’s conflict, including $2.2 million to support UNICEF’s programming related to children affected by armed conflict, including the release and reintegration of child soldiers, and $4 million to support local non-governmental organizations working to protect and promote the rights of children in vulnerable circumstances.

We believe that as home to the largest Sri Lankan Tamil population in the world outside of Sri Lanka itself, Canada can play a unique and influential role in addressing the recruitment and use of child soldiers in Sri Lanka.

The LTTE’s practice of recruiting and using children, including children under the age of fifteen, has been extensively documented. Human Rights Watch conducted an independent investigation of LTTE recruitment and use of children in August of 2004. Our November 2004 report, Living in Fear: Child Soldiers and the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, which we enclose, drew on the accounts of dozens of former child soldiers and described how the LTTE uses intimidation and threats to pressure Tamil families in the North and East to provide their sons and daughters for military service. When families refuse, the LTTE may abduct children from their homes at night or forcibly recruit them while they walk to school.

Prior to the ceasefire, children were routinely used in combat. Studies conducted during the mid-1990’s found that 40-60 percent of LTTE soldiers who died in battle were children under the age of eighteen. More recently, an unknown number of children died in conflict in April 2004, when a split in the LTTE resulted in short but fierce fighting between the main “Vanni” LTTE faction and a breakaway-group led by the LTTE’s eastern commander.

Human Rights Watch’s findings are supported by information collected by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) which maintains an extensive database devoted to child recruitment by the LTTE, and has documented approximately 3,600 cases of LTTE child recruitment from the time the ceasefire took effect in February 2002 through December 31, 2004. Of the child recruitment cases documented by UNICEF in the past three years, 937 involve children under the age of fifteen.

The Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission (SLMM), the international body led by the Norwegian government to monitor the ceasefire, also documents cases of child recruitment. Between February 1, 2002 and November 30, 2004, the SLMM received 1851 complaints of child recruitment by the LTTE. It ruled 1490 of these complaints as violations of the ceasefire.

Regrettably, the devastating December 26 tsunami has not halted the LTTE’s recruitment of children. As of January 26, UNICEF had registered over forty cases of child recruitment by the LTTE since the disaster occurred, including several cases of child recruitment from relief camps established for tsunami survivors. The true number of children recruited to date is probably higher. Local aid workers say that, for now, the presence of international workers may be discouraging child recruitment by the Tamil Tigers. But they worry about an increase in child recruitment once the foreign workers leave.

As you know, Canada’s large Tamil population has been a source of both financial and political support for the LTTE, often funneled through “charitable” organizations. The extent of such financial support is extremely difficult to document, with estimates ranging from $1 million to $22 million per year. Irrespective of the exact amount, the significant fundraising that takes place within Canada’s Tamil community facilitates the LTTE’s continued recruitment and use of child soldiers.

One of the major fundraising organizations linked to the LTTE is the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO), which functionally serves as the humanitarian arm of the LTTE and is currently seeking charitable status in Canada. During Human Rights Watch’s investigation, reliable local sources raised concerns about the close link between the TRO and LTTE, reporting for example, that TRO representatives are often former LTTE soldiers. Credible sources also report that since the tsunami, the TRO, in collaboration with the LTTE, has sought to control relief efforts in the East and relocate displaced persons camps to LTTE-controlled areas, in order to facilitate LTTE monitoring and control of vulnerable populations, as well as recruitment.

Our country’s relationship with Sri Lanka and large Tamil population provides Canada with a unique opportunity to address the LTTE’s continuing recruitment of children. Specifically, we urge you to take the following actions:

1) Issue a public statement calling on the LTTE to end all recruitment and use of children as soldiers and to release all children currently in its ranks. Also call on the LTTE and its humanitarian arm, the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO), to end efforts to control all relief efforts, camps and orphanages in Tamil areas, and to allow unhindered operation and access by impartial local and international organizations.

2) Use the occasion of the upcoming United Nations Security Council open debate on children and armed conflict (currently scheduled for February 23) to condemn the LTTE’s recruitment of children and demand the release of children in its ranks.

3) Through CIDA-supported projects for vulnerable children, strengthen recruitment prevention and child protection initiatives in areas that are vulnerable to LTTE recruitment efforts and other abuses, including tsunami-affected areas, relief camps and orphanages.

4) Urge the government of Sri Lanka to ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, and offer technical assistance in drafting national implementing legislation.

5) Urge both the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE to ensure basic human rights protections as a core component of any future peace process.

We believe that these actions could have a positive impact on the LTTE’s practices and help bring an end to the LTTE’s recruitment of children.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely yours,

cc Hon. Pierre Pettigrew
Hon. Bill Graham
Mr. John Cannis
Mr. Wajid Khan
Hon. Jim Karygiannis
Mr. Jack Layton
Hon. John McKay
Hon. Dan McTeague
Ms. Carolyn Parrish
Mr. Thomas Wappel