President Mahinda Rajapaksa will today (26) launch the Sri Lankan National Campaign against the Recruitment of Children for Use in Armed Conflict.

According to available reports, before 2003 there were some estimates that of nearly 14,000 strong LTTE fighting cadres nearly 60 per cent or 8,500 were children under 18 years. These were often referred to as the LTTE’s “Baby Brigade”. There was more reliable information after this, when parents began reporting to UNICEF offices of the forcible recruitment of children for combat.

According to the latest figures – in December 2008 – the total under age –under 18 years – recruitment by the LTTE was 6, 288. Of this 3,809 are boys and 2,478 are girls. There are claims that 2059 such children, or those recruited as children, have been released, which requires verification.

There are recent reports from UNICEF and other organizations that of late the LTTE has stepped up the forcible recruitment of children to carry weapons. This is due to the rapid decline of its older fighting cares following the rapid advance of the Security Forces in the North.

In a message to mark this launch of this national campaign President Rajapaksa said: “This special initiative is necessary because preventing child recruitment, in tandem with the freeing of all children already recruited and brutalized, is at the core of our final thrust to eradicate the scourge of terrorism from our nation. We have watched our children suffer this terror, brutality and indignity for long enough. As much as we are prepared to eradicate terror, we must be equally determined to save our children from its menacing clutches.

“The sinister strategists of terror are aware that in the innocence of childhood, the children forced into their ranks are oblivious to the real motives of terrorism. Their tender minds are easily influenced by propaganda, and open to exploitation to carry out acts of violence, putting them at risk of death and disability. Child Soldiers are robbed of their birthright of a childhood, education, health, recreation, and most of all, a life in their own family.”

The National Campaign against the Recruitment of Children for Use in Armed Conflict is an initiative of President Rajapaksa. It seeks to bring in all sections of society, irrespective of ethnicity, community or religion to oppose this crime against the children of Sri Lanka, and give strength to the thousands of Tamil parents who have been compelled to watch this tragedy of their offspring, barbarically destroyed; and ensure that the fight to eradicate terrorism, goes hand in hand, with the fight to free Sri Lanka’s children from being the puppets of terror.

The campaign will be launched at the Presidential Secretariat tomorrow (26) evening. It will build on the work already been done by the Ministry of Justice to rehabilitate former Child Soldiers, and bring together many of Sri Lankan organizations concerned with the rights and welfare of children, as well as foreign organization with a genuine interest in the welfare of children.