Foreign agencies must speak to escapees from the LTTE

Rajasingham Jayadevan

INTERVENTION: The situation in the uncleared LTTE controlled areas in Sri Lanka for families with children have become grave. Desperate and highhanded efforts of the LTTE recruiters to grab children at their will for military training have opened another chapter in the LTTE war efforts to use unwilling innocent civilians as human fodder.

The legitimacy of the Tamil people's demand for justice, freedom and unhindered participation to be a part of the inclusive society in Sri Lanka has been waylaid by the LTTE and their mere survival is now at stake in the hands of the LTTE, which projects itself as the champion to win the legitimate rights for the Tamil people.

Few parents after losing their children to the LTTE recently, have escaped to the vibrant town of Vavuniya and are desperately trying to seek help for their children's release from LTTE captivity.

One mother called me from Vavuniya early this morning (28/5) and was emotively crying to seek my help to release her son, who was captured by the LTTE for military training to attack the northern Jaffna peninsula.

When I asked how she obtained my telephone number, she said her relative in London gave it to her to speak to me. She was sobbing and was speaking with subdued voice and repeatedly asked me to help release her son from LTTE captivity.

She said she has five children and the LTTE have forcefully taken away one of her sons recently. "Before they were only taking one child from a family and they are now going for more," she said. "A family having four or more children have to part with their two children in their current recruitment drive," she further said.

Help release son

She had left behind her four daughters in Vanni - the heartland of the LTTE, to seek help to release her son. She was pleading throughout her conversation and was saying "they will come again to grab my daughters. I do not know what to do."

She was saying in desperation: help me! help me!! help me!!! many times. Her cry spoke volumes of the suffering of the innocent civilians in Vanni at present. I had to console her by saying that I will raise her cry with the International Human Rights organisations and asked her whether she could speak to them if she was approached. "I will do anything to save my children," was her emotive cry before we ended our conversation.

With the precarious situating looming for the people in Jaffna, and bearing in mind the callous disregard to international human rights and humanitarian laws by the LTTE, I spoke to some Tamils in the Diaspora in the UK, Germany, Denmark, Switzerland and France.

There was general consensus among those to whom I spoke to that there is wide spread abuse of human rights in Vanni and my conversations unravelled the predicament faced by the people in Vanni and Jaffna.

Child recruitment by the LTTE is the worrying comment I heard from everyone I spoke to. Some of them have relatives in Vanni and Kilinochchi and all confirmed the same pattern of forceful recruitment currently undertaken by the LTTE.

It was clear the LTTE has become desperate and is carrying out a massive recruitment drive to energise its lost grounds. One who had deep rooted family connection in Vanni said the LTTE has annulled all marriages after August 2006 in the areas it is controlling. A young girl who got married in February this year has been taken away by the LTTE despite pleading, "I am two months pregnant and am unwell."

She was taken away forcefully and the recruiters had said, "there is no problem in her joining for training as their rigorous military exercise will clear the foetus in her womb."

Having heard the painful and sordid stories of the few I contacted, I felt so saddened that these people have to live under such an appalling environment. Day by day they are losing hope and no one is able to come to their aid. The situation has become so desperate that substantial international focus must be given to end the human tragedy faced by this section of the people. Only an international effort could help these people.

It will be timely if the United Nations backed international monitoring agencies make their strong presence in Vavuniya, Trincomalee, Batlicaloa and Jaffna towns for the people to come forward and narrate their experiences. Remote dealing of the crisis of this magnitude by simple press releases now and then has not brought any salvation to the people. Pro-active international monitoring could only help understand the enormity of the crisis faced by the people.

Time has come for the LTTE to allow access to international agencies to investigate and respond to the needs of the people.