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More abductions to LTTE’s Baby Brigade
The continued abduction of children for forced recruitment as soldiers by the LTTE in the east came in for stricture by the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission yesterday.
"Over the week ten more complaints from their parents have been received," SLMM Deputy Chief Hagrup Haukland told The Sunday Times yesterday. This was in addition to 11 cases of abductions in the previous week, he said.

The mounting incidence of forced conscriptions, senior security forces officials in the east told The Sunday Times, was part of continuing efforts by Tiger guerrillas to further increase their strength in the eastern province. It was only last Wednesday Defence Minister Tilak Marapana admitted in Parliament that guerrilla strength in the east had increased after the February 2002 Ceasefire Agreement between the Government and the LTTE.

It was only nine days ago (on October 9), the LTTE held a much publicized ceremony in Kilinochchi to release 49 boys and girls to a rehabilitation camp. The move was seen as the first step in the decommissioning of child cadres. The rehabilitation camp was jointly run by the UN Children's Educational Fund (UNICEF) and the Tamil Refugees Rehabilitation Organisation (TRRO), the economic development arm of the LTTE.

But four days after the ceremony, to which the Colombo-based local and foreign media were invited, the UNICEF accused the LTTE of continued recruitment of children. A UNICEF statement quoted Ted Chaliban, a representative of the agency, as saying that "UNICEF is still receiving cases of child recruitment in all districts of the North East". He added that this recruitment must stop.

In a bid to ward off criticism, the LTTE's Political Wing leader for Batticaloa, Krishan, displayed eleven children before the media and claimed they had "joined voluntarily." But their parents staged a demonstration in the Valaichchenai town accusing the LTTE of forcibly conscripting them and demanded their release. One of the parents, who did not wish to be identified told a journalist, "the LTTE is aware of the law. They know young children cannot decide for themselves. The claim that they join voluntarily is a farce. But we cannot come out and say that in the open for fear of our own lives."

Increase in forced conscription, particularly after the much-publicized October 3 ceremonies in Kilinochchi, has begun to worry the UNICEF. UNICEF spokesperson in Colombo, Sarah Epstein told The Sunday Times, "we hope to raise issue over the fresh abductions with the LTTE". She said such cases had come to light after UNICEF had opened the transit camp in Kilinochchi to rehabilitate children who were released.

A team from the LTTE Political Wing led by its leader S.P. Thamilselvan, that was on a visit to Dublin, faced a barrage of questions from the media over child conscription. Mr. Thamilselvan then replied that "we consider these allegations to be based on wrong facts, wrong reporting and a biased campaign of misinformation and disinformation."

According to Mr Thamilselvan, children who had lost their families in decades of bloody conflict were joining the Tigers on their own initiative.

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