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UNICEF has issued a press release yesterday regarding a statement of Olara A. Otunnu, Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Children and Armed Conflict that has welcomed the United Nations Protocol on the Convention of the Rights of the Child which calls for raising the age of conscription of children up to 18 years even by non-governmental armed groups, said the Observer. Olara Otunnu was in Sri Lanka last year on a special mission and has also met top government officials as well as the LTTE in the north. He had pointed out to LTTE's conscription of children into the fighting cadres and had requested the LTTE to discontinue the practice, the Observer stated. But the LTTE with a history of going back on all their agreements also ignored the agreement with Otunnu and is still continuing the conscription of children into the armed cadres who are fighting in the north and east.
The press release from the Special Representative
specially stated, "Armed groups distinct from armed forces of the
state should not under any circumstance recruit or use in hostilities,
persons under the age of 18 years".
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