Rock row: Lanka seeks proof from UN

Human Rights and Disaster Management Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe will this week ask the United Nations to furnish the Government with substantial evidence to corroborate charges that sections of the Government troops are helping the Karuna group in recruiting child soldiers to battle the LTTE.

The move comes after Ambassador Allan Rock — special advisor to the UN Representative for Children and Armed Conflict— made a scathing attack on the security forces following a ten-day fact finding mission in the East. He is accusing them for the first time of complicity in the forcible recruitment of child soldiers by the Karuna faction.

Minister Samarasinghe said that while the UN envoys “can say these things, it is only fair that they back it up with evidence and share with us any information they have with regard to these charges”. The minister will tomorrow write to Radhika Coomaraswamy, the UN Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, who is currently in New York, and ask her to furnish the Government with enough evidence to back Mr. Rock’s statement. “If at that point the UN cannot give us sufficient evidence, we will lodge a formal protest,” he said.

Mr. Rock told reporters he had evidence that security forces travel to Tamil villages and photograph Tamil children who are later forcibly recruited by the Karuna faction. He said the “complicity of the security forces with the Karuna faction is common knowledge”. The Government denies these allegations saying it was highly perturbed by Mr. Rock’s statement.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa at a meeting with Mr. Rock assured him that the Government policy towards child recruitment was zero tolerance, and once the Government was in full possession of corraborating evidence, he would guarantee a full investigation into the matter.

United Nations Colombo spokesperson Orla Clinton said they were expecting Mr. Rock’s report “as soon as possible”, and would make it available to the Government to take necessary action. Meanwhile, the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission also supported the United Nations statement, saying it came as no surprise. “We have for some time known that there is a level of co-operation between certain elements of the security forces and the Karuna faction. We are compiling more information and will present the Government with a comprehensive report on the matter,” Acting spokesperson Helen Olassdottir said.