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| Sunday, 27 March 2005 |
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Security |
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News Business Features
Editorial
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Child conscription : Canada frowns on LTTE For the first time in its history, the Federal Parliament of Canada has taken up the child conscription issue in Sri Lanka for discussion. The statement made at the Sub Committee meeting was significant because it was the first time that the issue of child soldiers in Sri Lanka was formally taken up at the Federal Parliament of Canada, a press release issued by the Foreign Affairs Ministry stated. The Canadian Parliamentary Sub Committee on Human Rights and International Development has stressed that the Canadian Government should address the issue of the LTTE's child recruitment and ensure that Canadian funds are utilised for child protection initiatives and prevention of LTTE child conscription. In a statement issued after a meeting on March 23, Committee Chairman and MP David Kilgour said that the international community has raised major concern over the violation of the human rights of Sri Lankan children by the LTTE and the UN Security Council has discussed it in this regard. According to UNICEF, the LTTE has even reached the government controlled areas and strengthened the recruitment drive after the ceasefire began in 2002, Kilgour, who was also former Secretary of State Asia Pacific of the Foreign Affairs Department said. UNICEF documented 3516 cases of child recruitment by the LTTE during the ceasefire. The recruitment became so intense that less than 50 percent children went to school as many parents kept children at home in fear of the LTTE taking them away on the way. The statement said that children who lost their parents in the recent tsunami are more susceptible to LTTE recruitment now and Canada must address this issue and ensure its funds should meet the objectives, recruitment prevention, child protection, in all areas including tsunami affected areas, relief camps and orphanages. Deputy Chairman Stockwell Day, Foreign Affairs Critic of the Official Opposition Conservative Party of Canada referred to the LTTE's 'horrendous act' of training children to become human bombs. He said that he raised this issue in the House of Commons and called upon the Sub Committee to act on a non partisan basis and address the child right violation by the LTTE in Sri Lanka. He also referred to the necessity of listing the LTTE under the Canadian
Anti terrorism legislation. Federal MP Joe Comartin of the New Democratic
Party said that a group of Canadian parliamentarians accompanied him to
Vanni recently and expressed Canada's concern over the child conscription to
the LTTE. |
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Editorial | Security | Produced by Lake House |
