Elements of Lankan Forces help child recruitment by Karu

Colombo, Nov 13 (UNI) Launching a shocking attack on the government of Sri Lanka, the visiting UN Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Allan Rock, alleged that "certain elements" of the government military "are helping the Karuna faction", the break-away group of the Tamil Tiger rebels, to recruit underage children to fight against the mainstream rebel outfit.

''It (the mission) found strong and credible evidence that certain elements of the government security forces are supporting and sometimes participating in the abductions and forced recruitment of children by Karuna faction", Mr Rock told reporters here today, before winding up his ten-day fact finding mission to Sri Lanka.

Having visited the war-hit North-East region, including the rebel-held areas, Mr Rock also accused the LTTE of not complying with its repeated assurances to stop recruiting child soldiers.

"The mission's initial findings reveal that the LTTE has not complied with its commitments to stop child recruitment and release all the children within their ranks. Under-age recruitment continues and the LTTE have yet to release several hundred as verified by the UNICEF," he said.

"It is increasingly clear that children are at risk from all sides," he said.

Claiming that "the complicity of the security forces with the Karuna group is common knowledge", Mr Rock pointed out that "it corrodes respect for rule of the law and creates space" for the LTTE to abduct and recruit more child-soldiers.

"Wherever I travelled, I saw with my own eyes that systems meant to safeguard children's rights are either deteriorating or absent," Mr Rock said, adding that it was crucial that ways be found to monitor and protect their rights and interests.

Claiming that he had taken up these issues when he called on President Mahinda Rajapaksa, he said that the President had promised to launch immediate probe into his allegations.

''I am very grateful to the President for the immediate reaction that he will investigate and take steps to ensure that if anyone who did such things - it is a security forces or any part there of, collaborated with or participated in this criminal act, will be held responsible," he said.

Calling for more "international pressure on these issues" he said he would monitor the progress before reporting back to the Security Council on his findings.

UNI XC DKA RAI2340