150
LTTE cadres including 20 child soldiers killed in one month - LTTE posters
reveal
By Walter Jayawardhana
Three obituary posters found by troops operating in the Mannar battlefront
have revealed details of 150 LTTE cadres, including more than 20 child
soldiers, killed in one month. According to defence sources, the posters
were found on a billboard at a recently captured office of an LTTE regional
leader in the Karakakulam area.
The three posters contain details of 50 LTTE cadres on each, including
their name, rank and the unit that they had been attached to. However,
no ranks were mentioned against 30 cadres who appear very young in their
early or mid-teens. According to the details mentioned on the posters,
the LTTE cadres were killed at various locations in the Jaffna and Wanni
theatre of operations from 17th February to 10th March this year.
At least twenty child soldiers in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
(LTTE) have been killed in the Northern Districts during one month,
Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Defence said.
Referring to recently captured obituary posters from a LTTE office occupied
by the security forces the Ministry of defence said, “ no ranks
were mentioned against 30 cadres who appear very young in their early
or mid-teens. According to the details mentioned on the posters, the
LTTE cadres were killed at various locations in the Jaffna and Wanni
theatre of operations from 17th February to 10th March this year”.
Human rights organizations have discovered earlier, that tomb stones
at LTTE martyr grave yards of dead child soldiers do not indicate their
birth dates and only the dates they died obviously to conceal the fact
that they were child soldiers.
According to the Ministry of Defence sources, “ the posters were
found on a billboard at a recently captured office of an LTTE regional
leader in the Karakakulam area”, in the North Western Mannar District.
. The Ministry of Defence also published the reproduction of all the
three posters containing 50 photos each
Detailing more information on the posters Defence sources said , “The
three posters contain details of 50 LTTE cadres on each, including their
name, rank and the unit that they had been attached to. However, no
ranks were mentioned against 30 cadres who appear very young in their
early or mid-teens. According to the details mentioned on the posters,
the LTTE cadres were killed at various locations in the Jaffna and Wanni
theatre of operations from 17th February to 10th March this year.”
The same sources said, “"The pictures of…. children show
the LTTE is still using child soldiers despite its attempts cover up
the existence of its shameful baby brigade".
A June 13 2008 AFP news story datelined Colombo said, “According
to UNICEF (United Nation’s Children’s organization), there
are 1,410 outstanding cases of child recruitment by the rebels at the
end of April 2008.
"Of these, 146 are under the age of 18, and 1,264 were recruited
while under 18 but have now passed that age," UNICEF said.
Over the past two decades, the LTTE has promised to release children
from their rank and file, but they have been accused of failing to take
concrete action.
The UN says there were another 144 outstanding cases of child soldier
recruitment by a breakaway rebel faction, the Karuna group, which operates
in the island's east and is allied to the government.”
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