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UN Secretary General Banki Moon reporting to the United Nations General Assembly on "Children and armed conflict," said that the LTTE continues to recruit and re-recruit children for war. According to his report the LTTE has recruited 339 children from October 01, 2006 to August 31, 2007. Of them 78 percent were boys and 22 percent girls. The Secretary also referred to recruitment of children by the Karuna Group and several other incidents in which children were reportedly victims. The relevant section of his report on Sri Lanka follows: "From 1 October 2006 to 31 August 2007, UNICEF received confirmed reports of 339 children being recruited or re-recruited by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), of which 41 per cent were from Batticaloa, compared with 679 children recruited in the preceding 11 months. In the same period, LTTE released 226 children, compared with 171 children released in the preceding 11 months, predominantly from Kilinochchi. Of the children recruited, 78 per cent were boys and 22 per cent girls. The average age of the children recruited during the reporting period was 16 years. Among the 6,221 children registered on the UNICEF database as having been recruited since 2001, 1,469 cases remain outstanding, including 335 children currently under 18 years of age as at 31 August 2007. The reported cases may only be indicative of the actual number of children recruited given access limitations in LTTE-controlled areas. LTTE has designated its so-called Child Protection Authority as the interlocutor on child recruitment issues and Security Council resolution 1612 (2005), and weekly dialogue between UNICEF and the so-called Child Protection Authority continues. As at 22 August 2007, eight children continued to reside in the Educational Skills Development Centre, in violation of the recommendations of the Working Group of the Security Council. At the time of reporting, UNICEF was in the process of arranging the return of those eight children to their families. "UNICEF received confirmed reports that 246 children had been recruited or re-recruited by the Karuna faction during the reporting period, compared with 154 children recruited in the previous 11-month period. Most of the children were recruited from Batticaloa. The Karuna faction released 80 children in the same period, compared with 14 children released in the previous 11-month period. The average age of the children being recruited by the Karuna faction was 16 years. All of the children recruited were boys, with the exception of one girl. From the 385 children registered on the UNICEF database as having been recruited, 214 cases remained outstanding as at 31 August 2007, including 160 children currently under 18 years old. "The majority of reported child abduction cases occurred in Jaffna, Batticaloa and Vavuniya. Abductions are carried out mainly in the context of recruitment, and are attributed to LTTE and Karuna faction. In some instances, children who were abducted were later found to have been killed. On 14 November 2006, four boys were abducted in Batticaloa. That case is part of several group abductions of children in the area which remain unresolved. On 18 December 2006, 22 students were abducted by LTTE for recruitment purposes while attending a tutoring class in Ampara. All of the children were released within two days as a result of UNICEF advocacy with LTTE. On 22 December 2006 and 18 March 2007, two boys were reportedly detained by the Government of Sri Lanka security forces in Jaffna and have subsequently been reported missing. "Since 1 October 2006, according to verified reports, 46 children were killed and 79 maimed owing to the conflict. This includes the deaths of 11 recruited children, 9 of whom were recruited by LTTE and 2 by the Karuna faction. More than half of the killings and maimings occurred in Batticaloa district. On 2 January 2007, a Sri Lankan Air Force aerial bombardment killed seven children and injured eight in Padahuthurai, an internally displaced persons village near Mannar. All but one of the children was under the age of 10 years. On 2 April 2007, three children were killed and four maimed in a bus explosion at a military checkpoint in Ampara attributed to LTTE. "Aerial strikes and shelling by the Sri Lankan Army (SLA) and attacks by LTTE have resulted in the destruction of schools and the death and injury of students and teachers. On 8 November 2006, an SLA artillery bombardment hit an internally displaced persons camp located in a school in Vaharai, Batticaloa. At least 26 civilians died, including at least 2 children, and at least 69 civilians were injured, including 21 children under the age of 15 years. On 7 December 2006, LTTE shelling hit a school in Trincomalee which resulted in the death of a teacher and injury of 15 people, including 5 children. " Hospitals have also been damaged during SLA operations in the reporting period. On 18 October 2006, the Gramodaya Health Centre in Vaharai was damaged by SLA shelling, and the Centre was used by SLA from January to the end of July 2007. The Special Task Forces of the Government of Sri Lanka have also been utilizing a maternity ward and on-call duty room at a hospital in Batticaloa since July 2007. On 14 July 2007, SLA shelling damaged the maternity section and outpatient department of a hospital in north Vavuniya. "LTTE submitted a draft action plan on 28 March 2007 and a revised version on 19 July 2007, following dialogue with the country-level task force on monitoring and reporting. However, those drafts committed LTTE to a minimum age of recruitment of 17 years until 1 January 2008, at which point the minimum age of recruitment would be raised to 18 years. The delay in raising the minimum age of recruitment to 18 years is contradictory to their previous commitments and international standards. At the time of reporting, LTTE had indicated that the minimum age of recruitment would be raised to 18 years. However, this has not translated into a commitment to release those between 17 and 18 years old at the present time. On the other hand, despite continued advocacy, there has been less progress with the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulighal, the political wing of the Karuna faction. Following the commitment made to the Working Group of the Security Council, a committee comprising senior officials of the Government of Sri Lanka was established to carry out an independent and credible investigation into the allegations that certain elements of the Government security forces are supporting and sometimes participating in the abduction and forced recruitment of children by the Karuna faction. While the appointment of the committee is welcomed, there is an urgent need for the Government of Sri Lanka to investigate the allegations and take active measures to prevent grave violations against children, including the abduction and recruitment of children by the Karuna faction, especially in Government-controlled areas. Action is also still required by the Government of Sri Lanka to address the situation of children who sought special protection and surrendered to Government forces and who are currently in Pallekele and Jaffna Prisons, including the need for appropriate rehabilitative measures."
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