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| Sunday, 25 April 2004 |
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LTTE child soldiers: No truth in Thamilchelvan's allegations - UNICEF by Shanika Sriyananda A senior official of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in response to the LTTE political Leader S.P. Thamilchelvan's accusations levelled against the UNICEF that the Agency had failed to rehabilitate child soldiers who had left the organisation and confirmed that there were still 1,182 children in LTTE custody. He also said that they agreed with the LTTE that more to be done to rehabilitate the child soldiers. In an interview with the 'Sunday Observer', Geoffery Keele, the UNICEF Press Officer said that the rehabilitation work by the UNICEF and other partner organisations was still continuing to improve the lives of children in the North and East, including former child soldiers. "On the issue of children's psychological care, there are now 25 counsellors in six districts in the North and East and a referral mechanisms have been developed to give attention to individuals, who have been referred to the counsellors by UNICEF, Ministry of Social Welfare, Tamil Rehabilitation Organization and Save the Children Fund", he said. He said that under the Catch-up Education Program over 23,500 children in 2003 have gone back to school and over 600 primary health care workers had been trained in maternal and child health care in all eight districts covered by the Action Plan. " But our efforts need to be expanded to reach more families and children", he said. Keele said that the UNICEF has not exaggerated the number of children released but got the figures through a rigorous process, and reported only on the number of children that the UNICEF could verify. "However, according to our database there are still 1,182 children in the LTTE. There has been a great deal of effort on the part of the LTTE to release more and more children and we commend this stand by the organisation. In fact, 950 child soldiers have been either released by the LTTE or have returned home on their own accord since the middle of March 2004. This is a great step forward by the LTTE in the demobilization of child recruits", he said. But he said that until March and April this year, the LTTE had consistently recruited more child soldiers every month. " Large scale release of child soldiers is a very new and positive trend by the LTTE", he added. Keele said that the UNICEF did not have any 'special agendas' as claimed by the LTTE political Leader and its 'agenda was simply to help ensure that children's rights were respected in the areas of health, nutrition, education and protection. According to Tamil Net, the LTTE had appointed a three member committee by the LTTE Peace Secretariat which resulted in the release of 80 children in Trincomalee. This committee is scheduled to investigate the complaints in the North, to end underage child recruitment. However, the LTTE has urged the UNICEF to review the Children Affected by War (CAW) and to refrain from approaching the issue of child soldiers in a negative manner. |
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