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UNICEF has erred - Thamilchelvan
Sunday, 6 March 2005 - 6:16 AM SL Time
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The question of child soldiers continues to vex strained relations between the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and the Liberation Tigers. That the matter has been raised against the Tigers by the UN and other rights organizations is considered by Colombo as a feather in its foreign policy cap. `The Government of Sri Lanka is more interested in cynically exploiting the child soldiers issue for its black propaganda war against us than in finding a political solution to the conflict`, said Mr. S. P . Thamilchelvan in an interview with the TamilNet this week. He said there were serious errors in the UNICEF report on child recruitment by the LTTE.
TamilNet:
You have said in the letter you sent to UN Secretary General that there are errors in the UNICEF report on recruitment of children by the LTTE. What are they'
Thamilchelvan:
We were shocked and disappointed when the UNICEF put out the report. However, we appointed a special committee under the (LTTE) Peace Secretariat to investigate and verify the information in the UNICEF report. The committee went to the east and investigated the list of under age persons who, according to the UNICEF report, were with us. It found that persons whom we had handed back to their parents after we found them to be underage, persons who had left the LTTE and had got married and others who had gone back to their families were in the UNICEF list as persons who were still with the LTTE.
We have pointed this out to the UN Secretary General with sufficient proof. The committee is continuing to verify the UNICEF list despite the practical difficulties on the ground.
TamilNet:
The UN has listed the LTTE as an organization that has child soldiers. The UNICEF has charged that the LTTE continues to recruit minors to its armed forces. You have said little about this in the media. What is your response'
Thamilchelvan:
We have been fighting and laying down our lives for the sake of a better future for our people and our children. We have shed our blood in the struggle to win their legitimate rights. Therefore, we have a greater and deeper interest in the welfare and future of our children than anyone else. Our national leader launched many projects for children's welfare and education during war and peace. We are implementing them with the UN, Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) and several child welfare groups.
In addition to this, we are implementing a project with the UNICEF for the welfare of underage persons who come to join us. But this project is not satisfactory. There are some shortcomings and practical problems in its implementation. But we are determined to create a pragmatic and effective arrangement by discussing the matter with the UN and other concerned parties. We have sent a detailed letter to the UN Secretary General explaining our commitment and determination (to address the issue).
There is one important thing that you have to take note of in this regard. The majority of complaints about recruitment of minors come from areas controlled by the Sri Lankan armed forces. There are many instances of children going missing in these areas. Sri Lankan armed forces falsely accuse us of forcibly recruiting those children who are reported missing. They compel the children's parents to say that we took them (the children) away. In issuing reports (on recruitment of minors), the UNICEF misunderstands this reality in areas controlled by Sri Lankan armed forces.
TamilNet:
Speaking at the UN Security Council's special session on child soldiers on 23 February, Sri Lanka's ambassador to the UN, Mr. Bernard Gunatilleka charged that the LTTE abducted Tsunami affected children for its armed forces. What do you say'
Thamilchelvan:
It has to be said that this is blatant chicanery of the Sinhala government. No one deny the fact the deplorable conditions in which our children find themselves today were brought about by genocidal policies perpetrated on Tamils by successive Sinhala governments for more than fifty years and by the war it waged on our people for the last thirty years.
Sinhala governments destroyed the lives of our people and our children by imposing economic embargoes and by banning fishing and farming. They killed thousands of our children by bombing and shelling schools and homes. Thousands of children were displaced and orphaned. The Sri Lankan state makes such insidious allegations from time to time after destroying the lives and futures of our children to escape these heinous and unforgivable crimes. These allegations are baseless.
The Sri Lankan government is destroying our children's lives in every way while hoodwinking the world that it is concerned about the welfare of our children. That the Sri Lankan state is speaking for our children is nothing but blatant fraud. Let me explain. There is a cease fire agreement (CFA) between the LTTE and the Government of Sri Lanka for the last three years. The CFA contains provisions to restore normalcy in the war ravaged lives of the people in the northeast. But Sri Lankan armed forces continue to hinder this by occupying homes, temples, hospitals and schools. They have garrisoned fertile farming lands and fishing grounds on which our people depended on for their livelihoods. Colombo thinks only of military advantage, not the predicament of our people. Our people cannot go back to their villages, cultivate their lands or fish in the sea. They have been driven to destitution, deprived of their livelihoods by military restrictions and high security zones for many long years. It directly affects our children, destroys their future. Colombo bombed schools and killed children, imprisoned them; our children have seen their parents being murdered by Sri Lankan armed forces.
The Sri Lankan government wants to cover up the fact that it murdered our children, subjected them to inhuman treatment. It wants to prevent the world from knowing what is really going on in our areas.
It acted in an uncivilized manner by stopping the UN Secretary General who wanted to see the Tsunami devastation in the northeast.
TamilNet:
You asked LTTE troops conscripted by your ex-commander Karuna to leave him and go home when he separated from your movement. But Human rights groups now say that you are forcing some of these troops to rejoin. Do you still have persons conscripted by Karuna in the LTTE in Batticaloa'
Thamilchelvan:
No. We positively confirm that we have no one in the LTTE today who was forcibly conscripted by Karuna. A persistent complaint that Karuna was forcibly recruiting minors was one of the reasons that prompted the LTTE leader to initiate a disciplinary process against him. We released all under age persons whom he had forcibly recruited. We wish to completely confirm this.
From the beginning the LTTE has followed a very strict and selective recruitment policy with a view to building a committed fighting force. An unwilling conscript will never have the political commitment to make a good fighter for our people's rights.
TamilNet:
You say that underage persons join the LTTE by giving false information of their actual age. Why does this happen and what action are you taking to stop this'
Thamilchelvan:
We are determined not to accept minors who come to join the LTTE. We hand back such underage persons to their parents. Yet some minors attempt to join us by claiming that they are older than their actual age. Then I must say that our children's growth is affected by poverty and malnutrition induced by the war Sri Lanka waged on our people. It is difficult to gauge the actual age of these persons.
Also I should draw your attention to the fact that many Tamil parents lost the birth certificates of their children when the tsunami hit the east coast. Hence there is no firm basis on which we can verify the age of those who attempt to join up. It is really difficult to search for the persons on the UNICEF list of missing and dead people.
TamilNet: What have you done to protect the safety and interests of your children' What is the role of the UNICEF here'
Thamilchelvan:
We take into account the economic conditions at an underage person's home before we attempt to reunite him/her with their families. If a family's economic condition is bad we try to find them jobs and provide them some sort of skills training. We are looking after children afflicted by the Tsunami until their families are back on their feet.
We have to keep them in transit camps or children's homes with the permission of their parents until their families are economically stable. We provide health, education, school, and uniforms to these children. Tamil Rehabilitation Organization and the UN are helping us specially with this project.
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grw1
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6 Mar 2005 09:08:34 GMT Report for Abuse
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Well, the standard VLTTE rhetoric and accusign the opponent!
The interviewer is from Tamil net and of course the questions are set for answers attacking and blaming and making SLGov and Karuna responsible for the VLTTE child rectruitment.
Interestingly, They want to imply that VLTTE asked the Karuna loyalists to go home when it was Karuna who asked them to. Trying to paint a saint fugure eh of VLTTE!
Incidentally they are now accepting that Karuna does really exist. Up to now they said that he is a creation of the SL Army.
TSelvam can dupe the ill informed VLTTE cadres and the hard core expat VLTTE supporters but not any other. UNHCR and the world cannot be duped with such stupid arguments. UN will be after them as long as the child recruitments go on.
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ravi_r
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6 Mar 2005 13:39:13 GMT Report for Abuse
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grw1: good post.
The bottom line is even when a LTTEer slips on a banana skin anywhere in the world they have to blame the Sinhalese and the SL govt for all their troubles. That is how ridiculous these Tamils have become. Now they blame the UNICEF for investigating the LTTE for crimes against humanity. May be they are beginning to realize that the tide is turning and world sympathy is not for granted any more. What about killing the UNO Chief in Colombo over this, isn't that their usual response?
My question is who asked them to force recruit kids and may I ask why not Prabhas' kids and on what grounds did they excuse them from their dad's army? Instead they focus on low cast Tamil kids for their ultimate sacrifices while the rest have courageously flown away to live a better life else where, giving their own kids a new life away from LTTE. This is a fine example of a hypocrisy, Tamilchelvan can't fool the world anymore,
I read this guy is about the travel for Europe with a SL passport and not an Eelam passport. How can he betray all those cadres when Eelam is so near?
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magha
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6 Mar 2005 17:07:30 GMT Report for Abuse
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| I take my hat off to TamilNet for this interview with Thamilchelvan. No body could have shown better the diabolic lies and hypocrisy of the LTTE to the world. It is the time that Tamil Diaspora understands the reality that we live in the 21st century and our thinking needs to be modernized in sense that there is lot more room for peaceful coexistence. Sinhalese needs to work hard for that too. |
sunawij
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7 Mar 2005 05:39:38 GMT Report for Abuse
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Great interview!!!!
Thamilchelvan asks the questions and he himself answers.
World know that TamilNet is LTTE. What a joke Thamilchelvan!
In your opinion, not only UNICEF has erred you, why not USA?? (With USA consideraiotn of helping Sri Lanka gvnment with military trannings and so on, you should be erred too, right??)
Oh poor, innocent LTTE brutal killers, all the foreign bodies have erred you by banning you as a Terrorists organisation.
We are not talking about child soldiers just after the Tsunami, this 'child soldier' cocept was there thru out the past, as no Tamils wanted to go to LTTE.
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dumindak
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7 Mar 2005 10:17:16 GMT Report for Abuse
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| It is good to see this kind of news. It is showing the true picture of LTTE and how they can twist their wrong into other partys head. I am sure world is going to see these barberic monkeys as laughing stocks. |
Damitha
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7 Mar 2005 15:42:29 GMT Report for Abuse
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| Arent you all ashamed to say that LTTE is having child soldiers? From our President to ordinary people all say that they have child soldiers. Does that mean that all these child soldiers managed to send our troops back to the south from Mullaitivu, Elephant Pass, Pooneryn and various other places? we got hammered in scores can't you all remember? over 1500 killed in Mulaitivu, over 2500 killed or missing in Elephant Pass and almost 1000 killed in Pooneryn, aren't we ashamed of this being beaten by the child soldiers to this effect? just think twice. On top of all these defeats the last one came at Katunayaka fromt these so called child soldiers, aren't we ashamed? |
ravi_r
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7 Mar 2005 17:40:56 GMT Report for Abuse
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Damitha: What are we suppose to say, nothing? This is not about preventing recruitment of LTTE cadre or macho stuff about who is superior on the battlefield, it is all about giving Tamil kids an opportunity to have childhood. Get the difference now?
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sunawij
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8 Mar 2005 02:17:15 GMT Report for Abuse
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Damitha,
I bet you are not a singhalese, man!
Why hiding in a sinhala name??? come forward as real you and fight against Singhalese.
You are talking none sense. Why you do not talk abt bombings these brutal LTTE killers set in Colombo area thru years and how many innocent civilions died?????
Go and get a brain wash from Prabha, my dear.
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Oracle_Aus
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8 Mar 2005 11:53:14 GMT Report for Abuse
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Ravi you are talking about giving the tamil kids and opportunity, pls. don't shed crocodile tears . I guess this is the joke of the century . As long as people like you exist in Sri Lanka there will be no peace and hatred will always remain . One more thing I widthdraw all my good coments I made of you this instant, you are no better than the cheapy who calls him the tusker . If a person in your own community tries to enlighten you and you people brand him as a traitor , and if he is a tamil using sinhalese name well what people who contribute stuff using tamil names .
cheers
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