We heard Canadian parliamentarians from the Liberal Party, the NDP accusing Sri Lanka of using cluster bombs, targeting a hospital killing 300 and injuring 1000, and firing at

temporarily displaced Tamil civilians in government declared safe zones during the emergency debate held in the House of Commons on February 4, 2009. These charges

were proven to be false and mere repititions of deliberate lies put out by the Tamil Tiger Terrorist propaganda machine as shown in media reports quoted in our release dated

February 13, 2009. However, the honourable parliamentarians who even claimed that the military action by Sri Lanka to rid the country of the three decade long canker of Tamil Tiger terrorism was tantamount to 'genocide of the Tamils', have so far failed to retract their incorrect and irresponsible statements nor apologise for their partisan statements made

COLOMBO – Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels are forcibly recruiting children as young as 14 and have even forced a United Nations worker to take up arms as they shoot and kill people trying to flee the country's war, the UN said yesterday.

"(People) should not be shot at and they are being shot at" by the Tamil Tigers, said Neil Buhne, the UN resident co-ordinator for Sri Lanka. He did not say how many had been killed.

The Tigers are "now recruiting people as young as 14," Buhne said. "It had been happening but it seems to be accelerating."

Buhne said the Tigers also forcibly recruited one of the 15 local UN employees into their ranks.

Sri Lankan troops have cornered the rebels in a tiny swath of jungle and are battling to finish off a separatist rebellion that has raged off and on since 1983. Buhne said the Tigers were preventing people from fleeing the war zone.

Report released by the UN Resident/Humanitarian Coordinator in Colombo on February 16, 2009 on forcible confinement of UN staff and dependant by the LTTE:

"Fifteen United Nations staff and 75 of their dependents, 40 of whom are children, and 35 who are women , remain in the same area [held by the LTTE] prevented from leaving by the LTTE. Fifteen of these children have contracted respiratory diseases, a serious indicator for a population which is now in dire need of humanitarian assistance," the UN Office said. "We are especially concerned that one staff member was forcibly recruited into the LTTE yesterday (Feb 15) and calls on the LTTE to immediately release him, to desist from further recruitment of civilians, and permit passage for people who wish to leave, especially women and children," the statement adds.

Al Jazeera broadcast on February 12, 2009 speaks of LTTE shooting at fleeing civilians and Catholic Nuns:

Catholic nun claims shot at by LTTE, while evacuating sick people

Quoting a Catholic nun who was trying to evacuate sick people in a non-liberated village in the Mullaittivu District in Northern Sri Lanka, Al Jazeera television channel reported that LTTE terrorists shot at the sick people in a bid to stop them from leaving.

"When we tried to escape with civilians, LTTE fired at me. I got shot in my leg," sister Louise, a Catholic nun who tried to steer civilians away from the fighting, from Puttumatalan village was quoted having said on January 12.

Al Jazeera further said that the LTTE terrorists have shot at injured civilians fleeing fighting in Sri Lanka's northern war zone, quoting other witnesses who have escaped the island.

The alleged attack by LTTE came as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) tried to evacuate sick and wounded people by boat from Puttumatalan, a village with intensified terrorist activity recently

Other countries like Chad, Sierra Leone and Somalia have drawn more international scrutiny for their use of child soldiers. But in Sri Lanka, the Tamil Tigers in the north and a group called the Tamil Makkal Vidulthalai Pulikal (TMVP) in the east that broke away from the Tigers in 2004 to align with the government have both used child soldiers. UNICEF has documented close to 7,000 cases of child conscripts since 2006. TMVP, which UNICEF said is responsible for 600 child conscripts, recently promised to release all of its soldiers who are under 18. It remains uncertain whether the group will comply with its promise.

In spite of the harsh actions taken by the LTTE such as shooting at civilians held back to form a human shield from leaving the narrow strip of jungle to which the LTTE has withdrawn, and unleashing suicide bombers to target relief centres established by the government to accommodate the temporarily displaced Tamil civilians till such time as they could be re-settled in their own villages after removal of land mines planted by the Tamil Tigers and livelihood programs set in place, we find the displaced Tamil civilians breaking loose from the LTTE's grip and moving into safety in government controlled areas. Will the Liberal and NDP politicians even at this stage open their eyes and acknowledge the true position or continue to back the false propaganda churned by the front organization of the internationally banned Tamil Tiger Terrorist group?