|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
| Tuesday, 30 September 2003 |
 |
|
 |
News | |
| News Business Features Editorial Security Politics World Letters Sports Obituaries
|
Colombo, Monday (AFP) The UN agency for children said it will open its first transit home in Sri Lanka to demobilise some of the hundreds of underage soldiers recruited by Tamil Tiger rebels. The transit home to be opened Friday in Kilinochchi, will be a short-term haven for demobilised child soldiers and other underage victims of Sri Lanka's ethnic conflict, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said in a statement. It is to be run by local and foreign non-governmental agencies including UNICEF and a Tiger front group. "The transit centre project is one component of the action plan for war-affected children in the northeast of Sri Lanka... (and) covers child soldiers specifically and allows for an initial assessment of the children in a non-military environment before reunification with families," UNICEF said. The transit home is not an alternative to reuniting child soldiers with their families, the UN agency stressed. The LTTE have faced repeated international criticism for their "baby brigade" . Amnesty International in May said child conscription remained a problem despite a truce and accused the Tigers of recruiting cadres as young as 10 years old. UNICEF has sponsored programmes since April in rebel-held areas to build awareness of children's rights and provide former underage soldiers with vocational training and psychological care. The LTTE and the Government agreed in their fifth round of peace talks in Berlin in February to allow UNICEF a greater role in addressing problems faced by children affected by the war. The LTTE has returned at least 350 child soldiers to their parents since November 2001, but UNICEF still has a list of over 700 children who have reportedly been conscripted by the Tigers. Scandinavians monitoring a truce between the government and the LTTE since February 2002 have reported more than 300 new conscriptions by the rebels. Both the LTTE and the government have agreed to abide by a rights declaration as part of their peace negotiations, and commissioned Amnesty International's former secretary general Ian Martin to prepare a draft. The Tigers, however, abandoned the peace talks April 21 to protest what they called slow delivery on promises made during six rounds of talks since September last year. The LTTE had in 1998 assured UNICEF's Special Representative for Children in Armed Conflict, Olara Otunnu, that children under 18 would not be used as combatants. |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
Produced by Lake House |
