Lankan military rejects UN indictment on child recruitment

Colombo, Nov 14 (UNI) Shrugging off allegations, the Sri Lankan military today rejected the indictment by the visiting UN Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Allan Rock that certain elements of the government military ''are helping the Karuna faction'', the break-away group of Tamil Tiger rebels, to recruit underage children to fight the mainstream rebel outfit.

''The Mission's allegation is regretted and completely misleading,'' the Sri Lankan army said in a statement.

The visiting special envoy at the end of his 10-day fact finding mission to Sri Lanka said that he 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 the Karuna faction''.

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

Mr Rock also alleged that troops travelled to Tamil villages and photographed children who were later forcibly enlisted by the Karuna group which worked closely with security forces in the eastern districts of Batticaloa and Ampara.

''The Security forces while dissociating itself from the allegations vehemently denies having any involvement whatsoever with the LTTE breakaway group for abductions in Batticaloa, as alleged by the Mission,'' the army statement said.

Claiming that the UN envoy by innuendo has gone the extra mile to blame the troops of the Sri Lankan Security Forces, the army statement said that the Mission's conclusions based on 'eye-witness evidence' and alleging the troops of actively involving in such criminal acts deserved a deep sense of revulsion and explanation in view of their seriousness and repurcussions.

Having visited the war-hit North-East region, including the rebel-held areas during his stay in the island nation, 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,'' Rock said.

''It is increasingly clear that children are at risk from all sides,'' he concluded.

''Wherever I travelled, I saw with my own eyes that systems meant to safeguard children's rights are either deteriorating or absent,'' Mr Rock noted, 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 had 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 response that he will investigate and will take steps to ensure that anyone guilty of having collaborated with or participated in these criminal acts, be it the security forces or any part there of, will be held responsible'', he assured.

Calling for more ''international pressure on these issues'' the envoy reinforced that he would monitor the progress before reporting back to the Security Council on his findings.

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