“Continuing recruitment of children a serious violation of children’s rights by the LTTE” - UNICEF
[July 23, 2001]

“One of the most serious violations of children’s rights in Sri Lanka is the continued recruitment of children by the LTTE, Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of UNICEF said in a statement. 

The statement further said that the UN has observed increasing recruitment activity in and near schools and has received an increasing number of complaints from parents.

On a visit to northern Sri Lanka last February, UNICEF Deputy Director Andre Roberfroid met senior LTTE cadres to express the UN’s growing concerns. The LTTE confirmed its earlier commitments and agreed to implement additional measures proposed by the UN, which included widely publicising the minimum age for recruitment, not conducting any in or near schools, investigating all reported cases of children who have been recruited and releasing those under the age of 17 years.

The LTTE leadership had earlier promised the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Olara Otunnu, who visited Tiger held areas in 1998 not to recruit children below the age of 17 years and not to deploy children below 18 years as combatants.

Sri Lanka’s government has for the past 18 years been battling separatist Tamil rebels fighting for a separate state in the north and east of the country.

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Last Updated Date: December 16, 2003 .