<<previous  | index  |  next>>

SRI LANKA

Government forces

There were no indications of recruitment or use of child soldiers by the Sri Lankan government.

Non-state armed groups

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.²⁵¹

By the end of May UNICEF had reportedly received 1,370 complaints of child recruitment by the LTTE, and one source reported that there were 60 cases in the Batticaloa district alone between January and August.²⁵² The UTHR-Jaffna reported that while the LTTE had promised to release 400 children, only a handful had been released, most of them unfit for combat roles.²⁵³

The February 2002 peace agreement allowed unarmed LTTE members to enter government-controlled territory, which has reportedly enabled the LTTE to kidnap children there. The National Child Protection Authority and opposition parties have criticized the government for its failure to protect children from LTTE abductions.²⁵⁴

Demobilization and child protection programs

In March 2003, UNICEF and the LTTE developed a detailed plan for the rehabilitation of child soldiers in the northeast.²⁵⁵ In April UNICEF facilitated a workshop attended by the government, LTTE members and civil society representatives. The purpose was to develop an action plan to address the needs and care of children affected by conflict, including child soldiers. The plan included: child rights training for the LTTE, government armed forces and communities; a “monitoring mechanism administered by UNICEF” for children in the North East; the establishment of transit centres for “release and reintegration” of child soldiers and those “seeking recruitment”; and mechanisms providing micro credit, vocational training, education, health and nutritional services, and psychosocial care.²⁵⁶ By mid-2003 elements of the action plan had begun to be implemented, including child rights awareness campaigns and construction of transit centres.²⁵⁷

In August construction began of a third transit centre, in Batticaloa district, to provide temporary care and accommodation for under-age recruits released by the LTTE.²⁵⁸ However, the management of the centres was widely criticized by NGOs and in the media. The centres will be run by the LTTE-run Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) with support from UNICEF, and are located in LTTE-controlled areas. Concern was expressed that access to the camps will be restricted by the LTTE, and that the government and National Child Protection Authority will have no say in running them.²⁵⁹

Recommendations

· The United Nations (UN) Security Council should make the situation in Sri Lanka, including the extensive involvement of children in armed conflict, a high priority.

· The United Nations should increase its dialogue with the LTTE, calling on them to respect international law prohibiting the recruitment and use of children.

· UN agencies working to demobilize and reintegrate child soldiers in Sri Lanka should ensure appropriate coordination mechanisms with other multilateral, international and local organizations working on this issue.

· Disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) programs should take into account the specific needs of girls, former child soldiers who have attained the age of majority, and other vulnerable youth who may be marginalized from existing processes.

· UN agencies and partners should devote more resources to reintegration and follow-up activities to reduce risks of re-recruitment of child soldiers.