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| Wednesday, 22 October 2003 |
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LTTE frees another seven child soldiers COLOMBO, Tuesday (AFP) The LTTE have freed another seven child soldiers in the island's east but parents have complained the rebels still hold more than 1,000 other children, UNICEF said Tuesday. The United Nations Children's Fund said the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) released the seven children between the ages of 14 and 16 years in the town of Ampara on Saturday to be reunited with their parents. "We still have another 57 unresolved cases in Ampara," a UNICEF spokesman said, adding that the UN agency's records based on parents' complaints showed the guerrillas still held 1,098 children. Last week, the rebels freed 13 child soldiers recruited by them in the neighbouring district of Batticaloa. Those freed in Batticaloa included four children UNICEF verified as having been recruited by the LTTE 13 days earlier at the town of Valachchenai. "UNICEF has consistently and strongly advocated for an end to child recruitment," UNICEF said in a statement Friday. "For the Action Plan (on children affected by war) to be a success, all new recruitment of children has to stop." Earlier this month, the Tigers freed 49 boys and girls under the action plan on children signed between the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE. |
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