NEXT OF KIN AND NEIGHBORS BECOME IRATE AND ATTACK LTTE POLITICAL LEADERS WHO CAME TO HAND OVER DEAD CHILD SOLDIERS

By Walter Jayawardhana

Neighbors and next of kin who became extremely angry when they saw two dead bodies of child soldiers severely assaulted the LTTE men who came to hand over the bodies and smashed up their vehicles.

Reports from Mannar a predominantly Tamil area revealed that the irate villagers assaulted the LTTE group of men who came to hand over the dead children to the next of kin.

Among those assaulted was a LTTE area political leader who came ready to deliver his speech addressing the villagers that the children had entered the martyrdom for engaging themselves for the “liberation” of Tamils. A van and a motorcycle were also reportedly damaged.

The two children were among the hundreds of those whom were used as “cannon fodder” recently by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam during their recent clashes with the security forces in the North.

Security sources close to Mannar said the two children had been recruited by the LTTE not long ago against the wish of the parents by recruiters of children who visited the village.

The liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam is having 5000 such children trained for war and some as suicide bombers against civilian and military targets. Sencholai, named after a dead suicide bomber was exclusively dedicated of training school going children as well as orphaned children both as fighters and suicide bombers, according to some evidence by survivors of the bombing of Sencholai.
In Mannar area a different training center had been used by the LTTE.

After hearing the fate of the LTTE child soldiers there is an increasing tendency in the East to run away from the LTTE camps and surrender to the security forces.

On September 15, 2006 four LTTE cadets including two child soldiers surrendered to Mankerni Army detachment at Punani, in the Eastern Province army sources said. Two of them were as young as seven years while the others were young men in their twenties, the Army said. All four had been handed over to higher authorities for questioning, local authorities said.