New high in LTTE child abuse

PUVANESAN Vinogaran and Chandrakumar, still in their early teens, are proficient in handling sophisticated firearms, whereas they should be in school, zealously pursuing their studies with a view to carving out for themselves a trouble-free, fruitful future. Such are the terrible distortions of Tiger tyranny.

Their vehement denials notwithstanding, the disquieting story of Vinogaran and Chandrakumar, which we frontpaged yesterday, clearly establishes that child recruitment by the LTTE is continuing apace, in complete defiance of both local and international opinion.

Thus are young lives completely blighted by the Tigers and turned into cannon fodder in their sinister war designs.

According to one escapee, there are around 100 children in the 16 to 17 years range and 50 children between 10 and 12 years at an LTTE training camp in Sampur, Trincomalee.

This is a measure of the degree to which the LTTE is nonchalantly violating the bulk of civilized norms and humanitarian principles in its relentless pursuit of the destructive aims it has set for itself.

All this is in spite of the undertaking the Tigers have given the UN that children would not be recruited to their ranks.

The Tigers have gone on record as having stated that what they do with "their children" is "their business".

This is cynicism and heartlessness at its height. It is best that the LTTE realises that every citizen of Sri Lanka is the responsibility of the State. By the same token, the State represents the interests of all its citizens.

Accordingly, the State cannot stand idly by when a section of the Lankan child population is subjected to the grossest abuse by an anti-state entity which operates outside the bounds of the law.

Thus is the joint statement issued by the LTTE and the State at the end of the recent ceasefire talks in Geneva, already being unconscionably violated by the former. For, this document too gave expression to a commitment by the Tigers to promote the well being of children and to respect their rights.

It goes without saying that the Government would do everything in its power to protect the interests of the country's children.

However, pressure would need to be constantly applied on the LTTE by the world community, to make it respect its commitments to children. What is needed in this situation is a set of stringent international sanctions which would compel the Tigers to fall in line with the law.

The SLMM, the UN and its specialized agencies, such as Unicef, and other entities committed to child welfare need to ensure that this urgent requirement is met. They all need to stand-up and be counted.

The Lankan polity also needs to see in this chilling disclosure, the horrendous oppression being heaped on the Tamil people by the LTTE. Clearly, the Tamil people cannot be allowed to suffer so heart-rendingly at the hands of the LTTE.

It is only a swiftly-found, negotiated settlement which would end the Tamil people's long night of suffering.

Therefore, the public needs to unite with the State in accelerating the peace effort.