Stop recruiting child soldiers, EU to Tigers

FINLAND: The European Union yesterday told the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to stop recruiting child soldiers, a practice it called "deplorable and inhumane".

Finland, which holds the rotating EU Presidency, said that the LTTE and the Karuna group were violating international law by recruiting child soldiers.

"The European Union urges the LTTE to immediately cease the deplorable and inhumane practice of recruiting child soldiers, and release any children recruited in that manner without delay," the statement said.

Children were in an increasingly insecure situation in Sri Lanka, where the recruitment of children to hostilities had continued as had abductions of children from their families in order to recruit them, the EU said.