LTTE's child soldiers struggle to rebuild their lives
by Pradeep SENEVIRATNE
Recruited at a tender age and subjected to violence and brutality,
the Tamil Tigers' youngest conscripts now seek to regain a future that
was robbed from them.
Winston
Jeyakumari was only 15 years old when she was plucked from school by the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2007 and forced into
conscription. The teenage girl was taken to a camp in the northern
hinterlands of Sri Lanka, to be trained as a child soldier to fight
against the advancing Sri Lankan government troops.
"They bundled me into a vehicle and took me away. My family members
knew about my whereabouts only after four days," she told Khabar South
Asia. "On and off, I participated in battles against the military."
What happened later altered the course of her life.
"I was employed by the LTTE in their bomb-manufacturing plant. One
day, a bomb which I examined exploded," she said.
"My hands were severed from the elbows. I lost the sight of one eye.
I underwent treatment at a hospital in the uncleared areas of the North
at that time."
"[Now] I cannot do any productive work. I spend all day reading story
books, listening to music or watching TV," Jeyakumari told Khabar.
Along with many others, she surrendered in the waning days of the war
in 2009. Following her interrogation, she was transferred to a
rehabilitation programme in Poontottam. There, she received
psychological counselling by experts.
Today, she lives with her mother and relatives in her hometown of
Nayaru in the north. She holds the LTTE responsible for her present
plight.
It is experiences like her that put Sri Lanka onto the UN's "List of
Shame" of countries where children are recruited, killed, maimed, or
subjected to sexual violence in conflict zones.
Sri
Lanka was removed from that list earlier this year, having successfully
completed Security Council-mandated programmes to end the recruitment
and use of children, the world body said.
"No new cases of recruitment of children by armed groups have been
reported since October 2009," it said.
Activists, policy makers and ordinary people welcomed Sri Lanka's
removal from the list.
"This is a move entirely to be welcomed.
But what is more important is to maintain it and advance on it," said
Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, executive director of the Colombo-based civil
society organisation, Centre for Policy Alternatives.
According to the UN, the LTTE recruited a total of 6,905 children.
The whereabouts of 1,373 remain unknown.
Of those who have been located and rehabilitated, some attend
schools, whereas others are engaged in different kinds of work for
living, according to Commissioner General of Rehabilitations Chandana
Rajaguru.
"For rehabilitation of child soldiers and others, we provided
educational programmes and cultural activities in addition to
psychological counselling. Besides, we did religious programmes," he
told Khabar.Of the rehabilitated child soldiers, some have been enrolled
in the school called Hindu College in Ratmalana, a southern suburb of
Colombo.Former principal Udaya Kumara said that 20 child soldiers were
sent there in January.
"They are keen to study along with other students. But they look
traumatised. All of them had been forcibly recruited. They need more and
more counselling," Kumar, who was recently promoted to become an
education official in the western province, told Khabar. One-time LTTE
commander for the eastern province Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan, who
defected from the organisation in 2004 over an internal issue and joined
the government, said that he regretted the use of child soldiers."When I
was with the LTTE, I remember, a large number of child soldiers were
recruited. The LTTE leadership should be held responsible," he told
Khabar.
"A large number died in battles with the military. We cannot blame
the military for that. In a war zone, one cannot distinguish child
soldiers from the others," said Muralitharan, who is now the
government's deputy minister of resettlement.
Courtesy:
www.khabarsouthasia.com |