SCOPP welcomes UN HR Special Representative’s statement
COLOMBO: The Peace Secretariat welcomed the statement of Radhika
Coomaraswamy, Special Representative of the Secretary General for
Children and Armed Conflict, made to the Human Rights Council in Geneva
on September 21, 2007, says a press release issued by the Secretariat
for Coordinating the Peace Process (SCOPP).
Coomaraswamy emphasised the full cooperation of the Government that
was extended to Alan Rock, the special adviser she sent to report on the
situation. Though one NGO attempted to cast doubt on this, Coomaraswamy
reiterated the position that the Government facilitated Rock’s access to
all areas of the country including the North and East.
She also dealt firmly with NGO attempts to justify recruitment of
children over the age of 15, by claiming that ‘Most troubling was Rock’s
use of the age of 18 when the accepted international law age is 15’.
It is appalling that defenders of the LTTE continue to defend
disgraceful abuse of children, when even the LTTE has at least
officially raised the fence.
The SCOPP also appreciates that Coomaraswamy specifically addressed
some issues that had earlier concerned the Peace Secretariat. We had
earlier drawn the attention of the UN Coordinator in Colombo to what
might have seemed to the LTTE tolerance by the United Nations of some of
their abhorrent practices.
The previous UNICEF representative, in reporting on a recent visit to
Kilinochchi, had mentioned that the LTTE still had children between 17
and 18 in service and that further legislation was required to stop
this.
Though she apologised immediately for her use of the word
‘legislation’ and made clear her opposition to this position, SCOPP
fears that the UN had not sufficiently registered the gravity of what
was going on, and was not making it clear that it had zero tolerance for
such.
Coomaraswamy in her address made it clear that the LTTE’s failure to
‘commit to the full release of children under the age of 18 years’ was
‘in contravention to applicable national and international law’.
This emphasised that the United Nations acknowledges that the LTTE is
subject to Sri Lankan national law, which has always been its position
but has been challenged by documents such as the LTTE’s outrageous
account of its own laws which are dependent on the will of its supreme
leader.
In response to the statement of the Sri Lankan delegation, beseeching
the Special Representative to ensure that UN staff did not compromise on
the issue, Coomaraswamy made clear that there would be zero tolerance of
child recruitment.
She also welcomed the steps taken by the Sri Lankan Government in
setting up a committee to investigate allegations of complicity by
certain elements of the Sri Lankan forces in the alleged abductions by
the Karuna faction, while her address noted the undertaking of that
faction ‘to publish formal policy statements forbidding under-age
recruitment and to release children who may be in their ranks.’
Whilst SCOPP welcomes her declaration that the LTTE meanwhile
‘committed to better training for their military commanders in relation
to recruitment and instituting a process to discipline those who do not
comply,’ trust it that all UN staff on the ground will interpret this in
terms of her assertion of the zero tolerance policy.
SCOPP believes it essential that the Sri Lankan Government and all
its agencies cooperate fully to remedy any deficiencies with respect to
children and armed conflict.
We also believe that concerted rehabilitation programmes are
essential, if children and even other youngsters whose lives have been
thus far blighted are given opportunities for a better life.
SCOPP urged the international community to assist generously in the
proposals in this regard put forward by the Commissioner General of
Rehabilitation and others genuinely concerned with the plight of these
victims.
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