UN applaud Govt's efforts to protect children
By Dinesh Weerawansa
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has commended the Sri Lankan
Government's efforts in protecting interests of children by taking
several measures, including the creation of a special task force on
children.
In his latest report released yesterday, covering the period from 1
November 2006 to 14 September 2007, the United Nations Chief applauded
the Government's creation of a special task force on children and armed
conflict last April, and called on authorities to take further measures
to prevent armed groups' abduction and recruitment of children as
soldiers and to secure the release of current child soldiers.
When contacted, Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa said the
Government has taken every possible step to prevent child recruitment by
the LTTE or any other terrorist group. He said recruitment of child
soldiers has been reduced to a greater extent due to appropriate action
taken by the Government.
The 20-page report of UN Secretary-General too proves that the
recruitment of child soldiers has been reduced considerably. According
to Moon's report, LTTE has recruited 262 children (including 32 who were
re-recruited) between November 1, 2006 and August 31, 2007. But the
report, based on information received by the UN Children's Fund
(UNICEF), said the LTTE has recruited 756 children during the
corresponding period of the privious year.
"This represents a significant decrease as compared to the previous
12-month period," the UN report said.
However, Moon said that LTTE terrorists and its breakaway group -
Tamil Makkal Viduthali Pulikal (TMVP) continue to abduct children to
fight as soldiers. Though there is a significant drop in recruitment as
child soldiers, Moon said "both parties have failed to cease the
abduction, recruitment and use of children."
He said the LTTE and TMVP have also failed to "release all children
associated with their forces and engage in transparent procedures for
release and verification," which includes allowing the UN Task Force on
monitoring and reporting full access to military locations under their
control.
Despite some advances in the dialogue between UNICEF and the LTTE
(through the so-called Child Protection Authority of the terrorist
outfit which deals with child recruitment issues), there have been
several hurdles, such as the LTTE's insistence that only children born
after 1 January 1990 - who are 17 years old - would be released. This is
in disregard of both international and national legal standards which
state that 18 years is the minimum age of recruitment.The report also
stated that the number of children recruited by the TMVP/Karuna faction
between 1 November 2006 and 31 August 2007 was 207.
"Despite initial engagement on an action plan, the TMVP/Karuna
faction demonstrated bad faith on a number of occasions, including
leading the United Nations to a falsified training camp in Batticaloa
and re-recruiting children within days of releasing them in the presence
of UNICEF," the report stated.
"As of September, 2007, the TMVP/Karuna faction has not demonstrated
a full commitment to stop recruiting children and has not released all
children within their ranks," it added.
dinesh@sundayobserver.lk
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