Heikki Hulkkonen, however says a total of 270 children have been abducted by the LTTE after the Tigers signed a ceasefire agreement with the Sri Lankan government last February and the SLMM offices were set up in April 2002.
Terror story of children from the east
Caught in a pact with the
devil, the self-proclaimed saviour of the Tamil cause has emotionally slain
hundreds of Tamil parents who are being forced to sacrifice one child per
family to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
Distraught and bereft with
grief, Tamil parents in Sri Lanka's east have not even been allowed the
courtesy of a goodbye as their flesh and blood - children as young as 11 -
are being snatched from their midst to be "trained" by the LTTE.
Their tears however go
unnoticed. Recently, a mother was assaulted so badly by a LTTE cadre who
dragged her 14
year old son from her home, she had to be hospitalised for three days to
receive medical treatment.
Arumugam Maiuram (14) was
abducted on January 20, 2003, at around 11 p.m. His mother who tried to
physically prevent the Tigers from taking her child, paid a price.
According to the Batticaloa
police, Arumugam's elder sister later went to the LTTE camp at Tharavi where
she had learnt Arumugam was being held and begged for her brother to be
released, pleading that he is only 14 years old. Finally, the LTTE had
released Arumugam.
Others however have not been
so lucky. In another separate case, two fathers last month attempted suicide
when their 14 and 16 year old sons were abducted by the Tigers. These
children are yet to be found and released.
There
is certainly nothing new in the LTTE maintaining a 'baby brigade.' Since the
Tigers began a full-scale war in 1983 against successive Sri Lankan
governments, they have been renowned for recruiting children to their
fighting cadre. The recruitment has been carried out both forcibly as well
as voluntarily.
What perhaps has once more
brought this issue to the forefront of the peace process and negotiations
with the rebels is that the Tigers are now seizing children from government
controlled areas. Allowed easy access to 'government held territory,' the
Tigers have broadened their lair, using the opportunity afforded by the MoU,
to enter state controlled land and grab children from Tamil families.
When we visited Batticaloa
last week, the single most damning factor that emerged during our stay there
was that almost everybody from the police, to civilians, peace monitors,
members of the clergy, students, teachers, and civil servants, fear the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
This is why, there is almost
a complete media blackout or self- censorship as far as this horrendous
issue is concerned. Even the Scandinavian monitors attached to the Sri Lanka
Monitoring Mission (SLMM) in Batticaloa are wary of publicising vital
statistics and information gathered in this regard which prove beyond all
doubt, the LTTE is guilty of the most gross human rights violations when
they surreptitiously and in some cases openly kidnap Tamil children.
The most recent abduction
was on January 24. Eighteen year old Indrakumar, an O/L student at Kinnaidi
in the Valachchenai area in Batticaloa had just returned home from school
around 2 p.m. and was eating his lunch, when five LTTE cadres stormed into
the little house and forcibly dragged him away. Kinnaidi is in government
controlled land. His distraught mother, Pullaiammah and father, Naillah were
overcome with grief when we met them.
Area leader present
Sobbing, Pullaiammah choked
out details of the horrifying incident. She said she believes the LTTE has
taken her only son to a camp in Vakharai. She had been able to identify the
area leader of the LTTE, 'Nithi' who commands the area of Thiavatavan in
Batticaloa who she says was present when the Tigers forcibly dragged her son
from his home.
Naillah asserted that he is
due to undergo an eye operation, but now cannot do so as Indrakumar was to
have stayed with him while in hospital. Their plans for their son lie
shattered as any hope of seeing him again is remote.
Both Pullaiammah and Naillah on Wednesday, January 29, made a formal complaint to the SLMM.
The five Scandinavian born
monitors at the SLMM can do little or nothing about the situation. SLMM
Chief, Trond Furuhovde met with LTTE Political Wing Head, S. P.
Thamilchelvan in Killinochchi on January 29 to discuss the issue of child
conscription. He had little success other than a cursory acknowledgment that
the LTTE would investigate the matter.
Chairman, SLMM office in
Batticaloa, Heikki Hulkkonen said, the LTTE has told the SLMM that if a
child escapes their clutches they will take another family member hostage.
As a result, Hulkkonen reiterated that many children who do escape the claws
of the Tigers are too afraid to return to their homes and hide instead in
relatives houses or turn themselves to the police and military to be sent to
rehabilitation homes.
Savarimuttu Madibadanan (19)
was abducted from outside his home last December 5. Madibadanan is from
Kattankudy from a village called Ariyampathy. He was taken while standing
outside his home at around 7 p.m.
When his mother, Savarimuttu
Wijeyalakshmi appealed to the LTTE to release her son, the Tigers had said
they did not have him. Wijeyalakshmi has another younger boy aged 17 who she
said was abducted by the LTTE three months ago but later released. She
reiterated that she had been making plans to send 19 year old Madibadanan
overseas when he suddenly went missing.
Wijeyalakshmi has complained
to the SLMM, the Batticaloa police and the ICRC. She is hoping that one of
these organisations will somehow be able to locate her son and convince the
LTTE to release him.
Rarely seen once abducted
Her hopes may just be in vain. According to American born Father Harry Miller, who is a member of the Peace Committee in Batticaloa, at least six to eight children are grabbed by the LTTE every week in Batticaloa. They are rarely seen again unless they escape.
This too, results in a
fall-out. He recounted how a few months back the LTTE had abducted an 11
year old girl from a government controlled area in Batticaloa after her 15
year old sister who had been kidnapped earlier - escaped.
Miller reiterated that the
Tigers are known to watch and pick up children even from temple festivals.
He said the LTTE has on some occasions removed up to eight children from a
temple festival on a single night. He asserted the Tigers are all over
Batticaloa and even kidnap kids from playgrounds or while they walk home and
in many cases from within their homes
The Jesuit priest who has
made Batticaloa his home after arriving in the island in 1948, recounted how
the LTTE has approached many Tamil families and told parents who have three
or four kids that they must give one child to the LTTE. All this, after the
peace process began last February.
Fr. Miller asserted that the
issue of child conscription has snowballed during the present peace process
and the situation is that much more grave since the LTTE is now removing
children from government controlled areas. Earlier, the Tigers' 'baby
recruitment' was restricted to uncleared areas only.
He asserted the Tigers have
successfully "rendered the Batticaloa police impotent." (See box for further
comments)
Fr. Miller's perception is
not far wrong in this respect. When we met with the Batticaloa Police HQI,
Harischandra Bandara and asked him why the police cannot prevent this
astounding situation in areas under their purview, he replied, "there is
nothing we can do. The LTTE is allowed free access to these areas as a
result of the MoU. Hence the police cannot stop them or monitor their
movements within government territory."
Having said that, Bandara
however claimed that there have been a few instances, albeit few and far
between, when as a result of police road blocks and checkpoints they have
been able to stop and even arrest LTTE cadres who were attempting to
forcibly remove children.
Gone missing
Bandara recounted how two
weeks ago two fathers attempted suicide after their sons aged 14 and 16
years were kidnapped by the LTTE from their homes. They drank insecticide
but were saved as a result of being rushed to hospital and the deadly liquid
pumped out of their systems.
According to the military,
on January 7 this year, 16 year old Subramanium Maiuram was abducted from
27/6, Covington Road, Batticaloa. She is still missing.
January 11, 2003, 14 year
old Yogendran Somachandran was forcibly taken from 32, 2nd Cross Street,
Mamangama. Her mother went to the LTTE office in Batticaloa and threatened
to set herself on fire if her daughter was not returned. The Tigers merely
responded by saying, "go ahead." Her daughter is still missing.
On January 18, 2003, 15 year
old Ambiga Kuham Chandiakumar from Umavil Road, Komanthurai was kidnapped.
She is still missing.
Two days later on January
20, Thavarasa Sivakumar aged 16, was kidnapped from her home at 661,
Thiravumam Kovil Road, Ambuvellipuram, Pandirippu. She is still missing.
On January 21, 2003,
Sathasivam Prasam (18) from 108/3, Iridiyapuram South, Iridiyapuram escaped
and surrendered to the Sri Lanka Air Force camp in Batticaloa after having
been forcibly conscripted by the LTTE last month.
Some of the surrendees for
safety reasons are not handed back to their parents but sent to
rehabilitation homes in the south for protection. One such home is the
Gangodawila rehabilitation home for destitute girls.
Father Paul Hogan, founder
of The Butterfly Garden in Batticaloa, said that "at the moment parents in
Batticaloa are panicking as it appears the LTTE has increased its
recruitment drive."
General Officer Commanding
Batticaloa, Brigadier Sumith Balasuriya agrees. He said the Tigers are
seizing children between the ages of 14 to 18. Balasuriya said that the
Tigers appear to have stepped up their recruitment drive since last month.
He is of the view that the LTTE "may either be preparing for a possible
military onslaught in the event of war breaking out or it may also be that
they are merely trying to enhance their man power and show numbers."
Balasuriya also said the
children are taken mainly from school playgrounds while in some instances
they have been removed after being summoned to the LTTE's political offices
now set up in government controlled areas in the Eastern Province. He
believes the children are taken to a Tiger camp at Maranakaduwankulam close
to Thoppigala.
Two 17 year old girls who
escaped from LTTE camps last month and surrendered to the military have said
they were held by the Tigers in a camp close to Unnachchi which is situated
near the Dorabora tank in Batticaloa.
They have claimed that they were taken blindfolded and are not sure of the exact bearings as a result.
According to statistics
gathered by the military on this issue, at least 220 children between the
ages of 11 to 15 years have been kidnapped by the LTTE since February last
year. Another 370 below the age of 18 years they claim, have also been
abducted.
Heikki Hulkkonen, however
says a total of 270 children have been abducted by the LTTE after the Tigers
signed a ceasefire agreement with the Sri Lankan government last February
and the SLMM offices were set up in April 2002.
Unfortunately, there does
not appear to be any unified attempt by any of the NGOs, international
monitors and police including the military in Batticaloa to compare their
individual reports and statistics on this issue and come up with
comprehensive figures that would not contradict each other.
Police confused
The SLMM, the ICRC, the
Peace Committee in Batticaloa, the police and the military all have varying
figures and statistics on how many children have been abducted since the
peace process began.
The police in Batticaloa are
even confused with their figures, not certain how many children are in fact
being forcibly conscripted from under their very noses.
When told The Sunday Leader
has found that at least four under-age girls had been kidnapped this month
from the very heart of Batticaloa town and its precincts, Batticaloa HQI,
Harischandra Bandara was amazed. At the outset of our interview with him he
stated that "there have been no children abducted from any of the cleared
areas in Batticaloa." He was proved wrong minutes later by another staff
officer who read out names and places of children kidnapped - all from
government held territory.
As a Scandinavian monitor
who requested anonymity said, "in these so-called government controlled
areas, the LTTE reigns supreme and exercises more control than any other
government authority."
Another senior clergyman in
Batticaloa asserted, "the LTTE has already won the war. Not only will they
have administrative control over the north and east they will also govern
under a federal set-up with their own police and judiciary."
The all encompassing
question is how this system will affect the Muslims. That it is not an
acceptable solution to the Muslim community, they have already made
blatantly clear.
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