UN Envoy to investigate LTTE child conscription

US: Alan Rock, Special Envoy of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is due to visit Sri Lanka shortly to investigate the conscription of children by the LTTE, said Radhika Coomaraswamy, UN Special Rapporteur on Children in Armed Conflict at a meeting with President Mahinda Rajapaksa in New York yesterday.

The Special Rapporteur also agreed to provide assistance from the United Nations to the Government of Sri Lanka in its efforts to prevent child conscription by the LTTE. President Rajapaksa opined that the United Nations should play a more active role in this regard, a Presidential Secretariat release said.

President Rajapaksa said the United Nations should take more positive action to prevent the continuous recruitment of child soldiers by the LTTE.

Coomaraswamy agreed to provide UN support to the Government regarding future actions to prevent LTTE recruitment of child soldiers.