Peace in Sri Lanka

Children bear the deadliest effects of the conflict and carry its greatest burden. Why? The majority of the LTTE’scombatants are forcibly recruited children. The practice of child recruitment strongly characterizes the LTTE terrorism campaign from its inception in 1983, and perhaps even earlier than that in the latter part of the 1970s. Children recruited were and still are mostly Tamil boys and girls. Some children have been as young as 10 and 11 years of age, and others in their teens. There are reports recently written indicate that even children sitting for their ‘O’ Levels are being forcibly recruited. Children are easier than adults to recruit as they can be forced to do what dominant adults want them to do. They are also unable to fully comprehend the complexities of the justification for terror espoused by the LTTE. In addition, it is the poorest parents who live in situations of poverty and unemployment whose children are recruited, not children of the well to do. Child combatants caught in a protracted battle between the state and the LTTE invariably suffer disabilities or die in battle, while most of the well to do can enjoy the option to re-locate to other parts of Sri Lanka or emigrate to affluent western countries.

Child recruits, in their innocence, are oblivious of the real motivation which drives the LTTE leadership’s mission of terror against the Sri Lankan armed forces, civilians of all ethnicities, and political leaders alike. All communities have suffered from such attacks, the Sinhalese, the Tamils and the Muslims as have people of all religions – Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims ad Christians. Children in the vulnerability of childhood have become a pawn in the hands of the LTTE who have no scruple in converting them to perform deadly acts of violence causing misery and mayhem. The LTTE gives scant recognition to the resulting loss of whole generations of Tamil youth who die or suffer disabilities, unable to fulfill the potential they are born with to contribute to develop themselves and the land they live in. This raises doubts about the seriousness of the LTTE’s professed desire for Eelam and raises the question as to whether their war of terror is motivated by other advantages confined to benefit a few leaders at the top of the LTTE hierarchy. LTTE child combatants are trained to perpetrate war crimes beyond the comprehension of their tender young minds, leading to death and disabilities which are almost impossible to remedy.

What are the numbers involved? It is difficult to be accurate. Between 1983 and 2002 there was no systematic database and reporting system. Figures have been quoted by the Security Forces which indicate that out of an estimated 14,000 strong LTTE cadre, at least 60 per cent were children under 18 years. It was popularly known as the “baby brigade” of the LTTE. Children were well known as “canon fodder” used in the conflict. Child recruitment by the LTTE mainly occurred in the Northern and Eastern provinces. Such areas under LTTE domination were ulnerable to such recruitment. It was the establishment of a database by UNICEF in 2003 which provided the first opportunity to get more systematic data. The information was provided by the parents of children recruited to UNICEF offices. Although all parents may not have had the courage to report such recruitment, it has been estimated that at least 37 per cent did so.

According to the latest available information (30 April 2008) on under-age recruitment, the total under age recruitment by the LTTE is 6,259. Out of this total 3,784 are boys and 2,475 girls. 2,053 are claimed to have been released. There appears to remain a total of 1,410 outstanding of which 146 are still under 18 years, 1,264 who when recruited were under 18, but are now over 18 years. However, UNICEF reported that in 2006/2007, the rate of recruited children by the LTTE declined. But there is doubt as to whether this is a real reduction or whether the decline is due to under-reporting. There is strong possibility that such a decline is deceptive and that it could relate to heightened hostilities, thereby reducing reporting due to greater fear and intimidation of families. This is particularly so in the districts of Killinochchi and Mullativu where the LTTE is dominant. Currently there are reports of massive recruitment drives of both children and even older people in such areas.

The figures quoted in relation to recruitment by the TVMP/Karuna faction of the LTTE in the east indicate a total of 496 who are mostly boys. The total released so far is reported to be 189. There still appears to be 76 children under 18 years. Children recruited under 18 and now over 18 were reported as 68. Recently forty boys “surrendered” to the security forces. Initially eleven of these children surrendered and are now in a rehabilitation centre. Subsequently 28 more children “surrendered” in Batticaloa. Out of this number, 19 were re-united with their parents. Both parents and children wanted to return to their original homes. The families of the balance nine could not be located initially, but more and more are now being traced. A local process of reintegration with their families has been set up in Batticaloa. This includes international organisations such as UNICEF and Save the Children Fund, the National Child Protection Authority and the Women and Children Police Desk. Vocational training facilities are being sought at local level including access to psychosocial care and support through the National Child Protection Authority. GOSL and UN have brought “pressure” on fighting factions in the eastern province to secure the release of all children under 18 years who have been recruited. There is confidence that this will occur with the re-establishing of democracy following the recently conducted elections.

The LTTE conscripts children through abductions and kidnappings. Older children can be “motivated” through deliberate efforts to glorify war, violence, and martyrdom. The LTTE are blatant in that recruitment process. They do so even in the very classrooms in which the children are supposed to get education. Teachers and Principals are helpless to act against the LTTE’s recruiting agents due to fear.

Why are children vulnerable to recruitment? It is a combination of fear and intimidation, lack capacity to make an informed choice, and because they are unable to fully comprehend the consequences of their action. Children can also be swayed by the promise of power they can exercise when given a weapon, military training, and a uniform. The poorer children are promised regular meals and some a regular monetary payment which makes recruitment an attractive proposition.

The LTTE recruits children because the tender mind of a child is easier to motivate than adults. They can easily be made to regard violence as a source of power. Children do not need to be paid and are often lured by promises of a better life with the LTTE. Most recruited have never been to school or are school drop outs. They are therefore an easy target for use by the LTTE and other armed groups. Payments to the children make recruitment an attractive proposition for both the child and the parent. Parents who allow their children to be recruited are also regarded with respect by the LTTE as they “gave their child for the cause”. The children who die are made “martyrs” and their parents “honoured for the sacrifice of a child.

The Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) has consistently regarded the recruitment of children as combatants as one of the most serious aspects of the armed conflict in Sri Lanka. It is an extreme form of child abuse and exploitation resulting in the loss of childhood for ever.

The GOSL since Independence has accorded high priority to all Sri Lankan children irrespective of gender, ethnicity and religion. This is reflected in the post-Independence policies of providing free health care and education to all children including girls and boys. Such social policies have led to sustained declines in under-five mortality, maternal mortality, high levels of literacy and expectation of life at birth. Free health care includes both preventive and curative care, while education encompasses primary, secondary and tertiary education. Such services although costly, have been made freely available to children in the North and East and even those living in strongly LTTE dominated areas. However, such social investments are seriously eroded when children are used as combatants and become vulnerable to death and maiming in battle. The psychological impact on those children who manage to survive are complex and difficult to remedy.

Child combatants are denied the right to health, education, leisure, recreation and play. Most important of all, to be able to live and grow in their own family and community. They are not able to articulate the denial of such rights once recruited. They often lose contact with their family and community.

H.E the President, Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse has by regulation dated 12 September 2006 appointed a Commissioner General of Rehabilitation (CG/R). The Commissioner General is entrusted with specific responsibilities in relation to “surrendees” of the conflict. Since such “surrendees” include both adults and children, a separate gazette for such children has been finalized. This incorporates “child friendly” procedures and it will be formalized soon. A multidisciplinary committee which includes the National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) and UNICEF is involved in the final determination of the procedures identified. The CG/R has designated special centres for such child “surrendees” which provide protective accommodation and rehabilitation.

The Office of the CG/R has developed a policy on protective care, rehabilitation and reintegration of child combatants. The policy objectives include continued advocacy against child recruitment, mobilizing and empowering families/communities to protect children from recruitment, facilitating institutions to address socio-economic deprivations and poverty which is a root cause, establishing of protective care centres, creating unified release mechanisms, the provision of education and vocational training, developing a effective response to the psychosocial needs of children, preventing stigmatization and the reinforcement of negative identities, planning and developing community based interventions for children who need re-integration.

The GOSL continues to sustain its close compliance to implement both the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child as well as the Optional Protocol on Children Affected by the Armed Conflict. Thus the GOSL has adopted a zero tolerance approach to child recruitment with application to both the LTTE as well as its break away group, the Tamil Makkal Viduthali Pulikal (TVMP)/Karuna Faction.

The Ministry of Justice in 2006, enacted amendments to the Penal Code which propounds that any person who engages or recruits a child for use in armed conflict should be guilty of an offence and shall on conviction be liable to imprisonment of either description for a term not exceeding 30 years and to a fine. Sri Lanka is also a signatory to the Paris Commitment to protect children from unlawful recruitment or for use by armed forces or armed groups.

The GOSL has also taken measures to support the effective implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1612. The recruitment of children as combatants is the focus of the resolution although other grave violations are also included. In this connection, a multidisciplinary Task Force on Children and the Armed Conflict was established under the Ministry of Child Development & Women Empowerment. The GOSL collaborates closely with UNICEF and other UN agencies in their endeavour to reduce child recruits to ensure not only the unconditional release of all children recruited but to protect and reintegrate such children into society in accordance with government’s commitment to the promotion of child rights.

The practice of using child recruitment for terrorism robs the birth right of every single child involved. The GOSL is firmly committed to ensure that all children have the right to live with their families in dignity, be free of fear, intimidation and harassment, free to learn, study and be healthy, free just to be children. The GOSL is committed to the prevention of recruitment as well as the protection, care, rehabilitation and reintegration of all children under the age of 18 years who have been used by armed groups in Sri Lanka. The GOSL regards the use of children in war as a zero tolerance and non-negotiable issue.