Child soldiers: UN debate put off, no action against govt.

United Nation’s Special Envoy Allan Rock’s controversial report on the recruitment of Sri Lankan child soldiers is to be submitted to a Working Group of the UN Security Council on February 9, diplomats said yesterday.

Earlier the report was scheduled to be submitted tomorrow to the Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict, but it has been postponed.

In a report after a visit to the North East Mr. Rock charged that sections of the military were helping the breakaway Karuna faction to recruit children.

The government has strongly denied Mr. Rock’s allegations and demanded that he must provide credible evidence to substantiate his charges.

Sri Lanka’s UN Ambassador Prasad Kariyawasam told The Sunday Times the UN Security Council would impose no strictures or sanctions on Sri Lanka but instead take measures against the LTTE for continuing to conscript child soldiers.