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Geneva talks
Moves to take up child recruitment
By Shimali Senanayake
The government plans to take up child recruitment issues in the wake of the latest accusations of conscription by the LTTE, senior government officials said.

They said talks on child conscription were also expected to pave the way for discussions on human rights. The LTTE still holds as many as 1,358 child soldiers in its custody, despite repeated pledges to free all underage combatants, the United Nations Children' s Fund said in a statement on Friday.
The UNICEF report came just days after two teenage would-be rebel fighters who escaped from the clutches of the LTTE revealed that the guerrillas were still abducting children from the north and east.

Speaking to reporters after they sought refuge with the Navy, the two boys, aged 15 and 17, said more than 100 children—some as young as 12 -- were receiving weapons training at a camp identified as "Three Two Base," in Trincomalee.

UNICEF said the Tigers had recruited at least 5,368 child soldiers since the Feb 22, 2002 ceasefire, some of whom it had freed. The recruitment of child soldiers was one of the two main topics discussed at the Feb. 22-23 talks. The issue — a major irritant for the rebels — has ignited strong criticism against the LTTE globally.

At last months' talks, the LTTE's chief negototiator Anton Balasingham vowed to halt all child conscription. "We have given a solemn pledge that we will abstain from recruiting underage children," he told reporters. But he argued that most of the children joined the LTTE for socio-economic reasons.

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