THREE ESCAPEES FROM A TIGER GARRISON REVEAL THAT THERE ARE MORE THAN FIFTY FRESHLY CONSCRIPTED CHILDREN THERE

By Walter Jayawardhana

Three surrendered LTTE soldiers who were abducted and conscripted freshly to the LTTE guerilla army including a minor said a Tamil Tiger garrison run at Iralaikulam in the besieged Batticaloa District of the Eastern Province in Sri Lanka have about fifty more fresly conscripted child soldiers.
A 17 year old child soldier who surrendered said there were over fifty child soldiers with him at the camp undergoing military training at the moment.

All three who surrendered to a Sri Lanka Army roadblock post at Mavedivembu in Batticaloa were not children except one, and the group was between the ages of 17 and 23. The three youth who arrived at the road block at 7.45 a.m. January 11 said they were abducted and conscripted during the month of January by armed guerillas of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) or Tamil Tigers as they are popularly known.

"There were over,” said the 17 year old recruit,” 50 other children in the camp who had been abducted by the LTTE and forcibly given military training"

Two of those who escaped from the abominable Tiger garrison were young adults who were actually well employed at the time of abduction. They were employed gainfully at the Mitsui Cement Company at Trincomalee and abducted by the LTTE armed recruiters while they were on their way to visit their parents, they said.

One of them was quoted having said,"We had good jobs and never had any intention to join the LTTE and become a suicide looser. That's why I risked my life in fleeing their (LTTE) camp".
The defense sources said that three escapees are form Kalavanchikudi , Kalladi and Batticaloa town areas. The Sri Lanka Army said steps were being taken to hand over the three conscripts to their parents.

The LTTE denied having recruited any children for military purposes.The sources further revealed that 554 LTTE cadres have surrendered to the security forces since the year 2002