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Monitoring Chiefs to press for release of servicemen : Action Plan for reintegration of child soldiers

by Ranil Wijayapala and Ranga Jayasuriya

The Head of Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission Gen. Trond Furuhovde and his successor Tryggve Tellefsen will take up the matter of releasing the Army soldier and the Police officer under the LTTE custody when they meet LTTE leadership in Kilinochchi tomorrow.

The SLMM has taken a tough stand on the issue as the LTTE is continuously delaying the release of the soldier and the Police officer going against the ruling of the SLMM.

SLMM Deputy Chief Hagrup Haukland told the Daily News yesterday that the issue will be taken up on priority basis as they are scheduled to discuss matters relating to the implementation of the ceasefire agreement.

The successor to Furuhovde, Tryggve Tellefsen is due to meet the LTTE leadership for the first time before taking his position on March 07.

Haukland said that the duo will take up defence related matters and matters relating to SLMM rulings when they meet the LTTE leadership in Kilinochchi.

Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan representative of the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), Ted Chaiban will meet LTTE political chief S. Thamilchelvam today in Kilinochchi to discuss an action plan for the reintegration of LTTE child soldiers and assisting war affected children.

The Government and the LTTE in the fifth round of peace talks in Berlin invited the UNICEF to assist the war affected children and child combatants.

This is the first meeting between the LTTE and the UNICEF since the invitation and the parties will discuss modalities for the action plan, a UNICEF spokesman said.

At a meeting held last week between Defence Secretary Austin Fernando and LTTE Eastern military chief Karuna where Chaiban was also present, the LTTE invited the UNICEF to conduct a workshop on the war affected children in Kilinochchi in the mid March.

The LTTE has proposed to set up a transit home for child combatants where they have access to their parents and thus children with no families to be reintegrated can be traced.

Seven hundred and thirty complaints of child recruitment by the LTTE are still unresolved, according to the UNICEF coordinated data.

UNICEF executive director Carol Bellamy visited Sri Lanka in the early last month and met Thamilselvam to discuss the issue of child soldiers and their reintegration.

At the meeting with Bellamy, Thamilselvam agreed to meet the UNICEF following the Berlin talks where the child conscription and the demobilising child soldiers units were discussed.

At the Berlin peace talks, LTTE chief negotiator Anton Balasingham pledged that there will be no child recruitment in the future.

Balasingham said the LTTE is willing to lend itself to the UNICEF in this regard.

The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), however said last week that 313 complaints of child recruitment and 89 complaints of abduction by the LTTE had been reported from the implementation of the Truce Agreement in February 23 to the end of 2002.

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Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
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