SRI LANKA UNITED NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CANADA

Box 55292, 300 Borough Drive, Toronto, Ontario M1P 4Z7

E-mail: sluna@idirect.com

By E-mail January 19, 2005

Attention of Political Leaders, Diplomats and Media Personnel:

In our media release dated January 18, 2005, we quoted the pro-LTTE leader Mr. R.Sampanthan of the

Tamil National Alliance, who went on record to say that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are

neither vicious nor terrorist, and also that children left homeless by the war were being helped by the

Tamil Tigers, which was wrongly interpreted as child recruitment.

We are forwarding herewith a news release dated January 14, 2005, by the Human Rights Watch of

New York, stating that the LTTE was abducting children who had been orphaned or displaced by the

tsunami disaster to fill the ranks of their fighting units that suffered heavy losses by the same tidal wave.

The LTTE's spokeperson from the Canadian Tamil Congress (CTC), the Tamil Rehabilitation

Organization (TRO) and other known front organization deny any such recruitment and called it

propaganda against the LTTE.

Amy Waldman of the New York Times who visited the uncleared Vanni region controlled by the LTTE

visited an orphanage operated by the TRO in 2003, where she was given access only to the very young

children but prevented from meeting the young adults. She came away with the impression that the

orphanage was brain washing the children by feeding them on hatred towards members of the majority

Sinhala community to turn them into future candidates for their Black Tiger Suicide Bomber squad.

Should we in Canada allow the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization to raise funds for orphanages that

produce suicide bombers, or alternatively, where they divert such funds for weapons procurement by the

LTTE? The TRO is said to be operating in over 50 countries where the LTTE has established a

fundraising base and receiving monies on behalf of the LTTE which controls it. Can the TRO account

for the various humanitarian assistance programs that they claim to be carrying out? In terms of the

UN Security Council Resolution Number 1373, Canada is obligated to take all measures to prevent

the funding of terrorist groups such as the LTTE. With Canadian Parliamentarians rushing in to

support the grant of charity status to the TRO even without any accounting of its humanitarian

programs, we are left to wonder if Canada is prepared to fulfill her obligations under the UN

Conventions to which she is a signatory?

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

Sri Lanka: Child Tsunami Victims Recruited by Tamil Tigers

LTTE May Seek Children to Replace Lost Forces

(New York: January 14, 2005) -- The rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE, or Tamil Tigers) are recruiting children affected by the tsunami for use as soldiers, Human Rights Watch said today.

Human Rights Watch said that the Tamil Tigers, who were already recruiting large numbers of child soldiers, now may seek to replace forces lost to the tsunami with child recruits.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported Thursday on three cases of children recruited from camps for tsunami survivors in Batticaloa and Ampara, on Sri Lanka’s eastern coast. Human Rights Watch has received additional information on LTTE recruitment of children in Trincomalee and Jaffna.

“The Tamil Tigers are preying on the most vulnerable by taking advantage of children who have been orphaned or displaced by the tsunami,” said Jo Becker, children’s rights advocacy director for Human Rights Watch. “Every effort must be made to stop this unconscionable recruiting from families who have already suffered so much.”

At a relief camp in Trincomalee, a 16-year old boy who had been recruited prior to the tsunami and later escaped told credible sources that he recently witnessed the LTTE recruit three girls from the camp. In Jaffna, independent human rights monitors documented LTTE recruitment of two 13-year old boys on January 3. The LTTE has a long history of recruiting children as soldiers. A Human Rights Watch report published in November 2004 documented LTTE recruitment of thousands of children since a ceasefire between the government and LTTE took effect in early 2002. Human Rights Watch found that the LTTE often used threats, intimidation and even abduction to bring children into its ranks. Prior to the ceasefire, children were routinely used in combat, and often deployed on suicide missions.

Various sources estimate that the LTTE lost between 700 and 2000 soldiers during the tsunami, including nearly 400 women and girls who were washed away from an LTTE training camp in Mullaitivu. Sri Lankan government sources have reported that the LTTE navy suffered major losses. “As the LTTE seeks to rebuild its forces after the tsunami, children are at enormous risk,” said Becker. “Children have always been targeted, but children who have lost their homes or families from the tsunami now are even more susceptible to LTTE recruitment.”

The LTTE is reportedly pressuring many camps for tsunami victims to relocate from government-held areas to LTTE-held territory. Human Rights Watch expressed strong concern that such relocation will put children at greater risk of recruitment. Human Rights Watch called for intensive international monitoring of camps for tsunami victims, with special attention to vulnerable children. It urged international governments providing aid to affected areas in Sri Lanka to publicly condemn the LTTE’s recruitment of children and call on the LTTE to release the children in its ranks. The organization welcomed UNICEF’s efforts to register all orphaned and separated children and monitor under-age recruitment cases.

Related Material

Living in Fear: Child Soldiers and the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka
Report, November 11, 2004 Sri Lanka Country Page From: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/01/14/slanka10016.htm