Sri Lankan government forces are abducting children as soldiers for rebels fighting against the Tamil Tigers, former Canadian justice minister Allan Rock charged yesterday.
The Tamil Tigers have long been condemned for using children in Sri Lanka's long and vicious civil conflict. But this appears to be the first time that evidence from a reliable, independent source has emerged that the Tigers' opponents are engaged in a similar practice.
It's a dire situation and deeply troubling, Mr. Rock said, adding that he has firsthand direct and circumstantial evidence that Sri Lankan security agents were rounding up young boys in eastern Sri Lanka and forcing them into the hands of a breakaway faction of the Tigers, the Karuna group.
They, too, have been very aggressively abducting children, Mr. Rock said of the Karuna, which is aligning itself with the government against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, more commonly know as the Tamil Tigers.
We not only found that there was evidence of that, but the most disturbing element of all is that we had both direct and indirect evidence of complicity in these abductions by the security forces of the government, in other words army and security forces, according to eyewitness accounts.
Mr. Rock also accused the Tigers of failing to honour a written accord to stop recruiting children as fighters and to release those already being held. The LTTE had promised to release all underage rebels by Jan 1, 2007.
UNICEF lists 1,598 outstanding cases of underage recruitment by the Tigers, 649 of whom are still under the age of 18.
Mr. Rock was speaking by telephone from Colombo, where he has just completed a fact-finding mission on behalf of the United Nations special adviser on children and armed conflict.
After his years in Liberal government, where he served as minister of health and justice, Mr. Rock was for two years Canadian ambassador to the United Nations.
Mr.
Rock said he interviewed 24 families who had children abducted, saying government security forces came into a village, rounded up all the young boys, brought them into the middle of a main road, consigned them into a circle and decided which boys they wanted to take with them and abduct.
What is more, he said, he has evidence that abductees have been held in government army bases until they are handed over to the Karuna group. He also said that he has circumstantial evidence that abductees are being transported without hindrance through government checkpoints.
There's much common knowledge about this in the eastern provinces and it implicates the government security forces directly, or at least elements thereof, he said.
He said that he met yesterday with Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa to outline his information. Mr.
Rock said the President told him he was not aware of any evidence that his forces were involved in Karuna child abductions but would order a full and immediate investigation and would hold anyone responsible fully accountable.
According to news reports, the Sri Lankan military denied the allegations as completely misleading, but also said the comments deserve a deep sense of revulsion and explanation in view of their serious nature and repercussions.
The military vehemently denies having any involvement whatsoever with the LTTE breakaway group for abductions in Batticaloa, it said in statement, referring to one of the more troubled areas of Sri Lanka.
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