"I held a child by the legs and bashed its head against wall and enjoyed hearing the mother's screaming." This confession from a child soldier of the LTTE, is published in the latest issue of Amnesty International's "Children in South Asia--securing their rights."

The confession was attributed to this 15 year old LTTE child soldier in late 1994 after he was admitted to a Teaching hospital in January after complaints of insomnia, aggresive outbursts and abnormal behavior. He had joined the LTTE at the age of 11, the report said. The report went on to quote the child as saying "They deserved to die". I underwent extensive training. He told doctors that after the attack, where he lost many friends he was shown videos of dead women and children and was told that his enemies had done this. Soon afterwards he was involved in attacks on several Muslim villages near Batticaloa. The recount was of one such attack on a village.

Among the other atrocities by the LTTE which were highlighted in the publication was the recent attack on the Temple of the Tooth on January 25, where 13 pilgrims, among them two children aged two and seven were killed.

Further attributions in the publication include an account of an unaccompanied teenager, currently seeking asylum in the UK, who claimed to have been marked for recruitment by the LTTE. They first came in 1993, the publication quoted. He was 14 and living with his family at a camp for internally displaced people at Urumpirai, Jaffna. The LTTE member who entered the family's hut was in civilian clothes, but others waiting outside were in uniform and were armed. When he and his sister refused, they allegedly said:"Think about it. If you don't join, we will come and take you." It was stated that AI knows of children as young as 12 who had been recruited against their will by the LTTE, and others as young as nine who have been seen carrying arms.

AI was also been critical about other Tamil armed groups fighting alongside the security forces who have been accused of recruiting juveniles. AI also reported on senior schoolboys in the Dimbulagala and Welikanda area of the Polonnaruwa district, who were forced to perform civil defense duties normally performed by the homeguards. Offices of the Welikanda police station have set up a scheme whereby each family has to send an adult male to perform homeguard duties. If for whatever reason they cannot do so, it states, they have to contribute Rs. 125 per day to allow someone else to be engaged or they must send a child, it said.

The report touched on the disappearances of youth during the counter insurgency operations in the south of the country against the JVP as well as the February 1, 1998 claim of the shooting of eight civilians by homeguards and the police at Tampalakamam, Trincomalee.

The report also focussed on the indiscriminate laying of landmines. It stated that about 30 civilians which included several children have been killed or injured when they stepped on uncleared mines after returning home in 1996.

Amnesty International describes itself as an impartial worldwide voulantary movement against the violation of fundemental Human rights.

AI' s recommendations at the conclusion of the report to armed opposition groups include to end the use of of anti-personnel mines and other weapons of indiscriminate killing and the prohibition of the recruitment of anyone under 18 into the armed conflict.

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