Sri Lanka army aids child abductions-rights group

NEW YORK, Jan 24 (Reuters) A breakaway group of fighters in Sri Lanka has abducted and forcibly recruited hundreds of child soldiers with the support of government security forces, US-based Human Rights Watch said today.

While the Sri Lankan government and the Karuna group have denied working together, Human Rights Watch echoed UN concerns that the abductions would have needed cooperation.

The Karuna split from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam separatist rebel group in 2004. The Tigers have accused the Karuna of attacking them with the help of the military.

A Human Rights Watch report -- ''Complicit in Crime: State Collusion in Abductions and Child Recruitment by the Karuna Group'' -- said at least 200 Tamil children were abducted during 2006 in the island's east, where the Karuna is active.

Human Rights Watch said it suspected the actual number was up to three times higher due to underreporting and that the Karuna also forcibly recruited hundreds of men aged 18-30.

The 100-page report said areas where the Karuna abductions took place were ''firmly under government control, with myriad military and police checkpoints and security force camps.'' ''No armed group could engage in such large-scale abductions, and then hold and train the abductees for combat in established camps, without government knowledge and at least tacit support,'' it said.

In a report published yesterday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged Sri Lanka to investigate allegations that government security forces were aiding the Karuna's abduction or recruitment of child soldiers.

The Sri Lankan government has denied any involvement. Human Rights Watch said the Karuna has also denied recruiting children and carrying out abductions.

The Sri Lankan Embassy in Washington was not immediately available for comment.

Sri Lanka has suffered more than two decades of ethnic conflict between the majority Sinhalese, who mostly follow Buddhism, and the mainly Hindu minority Tamils.

A 2002 truce is in tatters and thousands of people were killed last year. Analysts fear further escalation in a war that has killed more than 67,000 people since 1983.

The Tamil Tigers have also been accused of recruiting child soldiers. The group had vowed to release all underage fighters -- who, it argues, lie about their age to join the fight for an independent state -- by January 2007.

The Human Rights Watch report urged the Karuna to stop all recruitment of children and forced recruitment generally. It also called on the Sri Lankan government to investigate the involvement of its security forces.

Among the recommendations was a call for the government to find children recruited by the Karuna and return them to their families.

Reuters PB DB1120