The LTTE had ordered the youth who sat for the GCE Ordinary Level Examination in Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu districts that they should join the organization to fight the security forces or face dire consequences, Military Spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said.

Addressing the weekly defence briefing the Military spokesman said that out of 8,000 students who sat for the O/L examination last year, the LTTE have forcibly taken away a larger number of students.

According to him the child combatants who have been forcibly conscripted by the LTTE have become sitting ducks in the battlefield as they have no fighting experience but the organization continues to conscript children despite warnings by the children's welfare organizations.

Civilians who fled from uncleared areas to the government-controlled areas have said the reasons for them to flee from those areas were that they were in fear of their children being forcibly conscripted by the LTTE and the men are forced to work for the LTTE without any payment.