Tigers continue child recruitment

KILINOCHCHI: People in Kilinochchi say the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam insurgents are forcing families to turn over at least one family member to serve as combatants. Among those forcibly recruited are children,the Voice of America said.

In testimony before the European Parliament, Charu Hogg, representing Human Rights Watch, an independent human rights monitor, says the Tigers have “forcibly recruited for combat boys, girls, men and women.”

The insurgent group, said Ms. Hogg, “continues to murder its political opponents, largely in the Tamil community, and runs a near totalitarian state in the areas of the country’s North and East under its control.”

Sri Lankan children have suffered death, wounds, hunger, disease, and the trauma of being forced to take part in combat. More than four-hundred fifty children were reportedly forced to join the Tigers during 2006, bringing the total number of child soldiers in their ranks to more than one-thousand.

During the same period, a breakaway faction of the Tamil Tigers lead by Karuna Amman is believed to have forcibly recruited more than 200 children.

U.S. Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Steven Mann said human rights conditions in Sri Lanka is a “key U.S. policy concern.” Mann said “human rights conditions are worst in Tiger-controlled areas, where there is no rule of law to protect Sri Lankans’ civil liberties.”

He called Tiger recruitment of child soldiers “singularly deplorable.”