Sri Lanka
Child soldiers were recruited during the Sri Lankan civil war that lasted from 1983 until 2009. Rebel group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which fought for a separate Tamil state named Tamil Eelam in the northern and eastern regions of Sri Lankan, recruited child soldiers, as did the paramilitary group Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP), also known as the Karuna group, which formed as a splinter group of the LTTE in March 2004.
With the death of the leader of the LTTE, Velupillai Prabhakaran, on May 18, 2009, the 26-year civil war ended and the LTTE disbanded. Child soldiers are no longer recruited by the now defunct LTTE or the TMVP.
Children were recruited and then rerecruited by the LTTE and the Karuna group. The Karuna group had denied the recruiting of children, but it in fact did recruit children, sometimes those who had formerly been associated with the LTTE. The LTTE had also denied knowingly recruiting of children and had pledged to release those under 17 by June 2007.
‘Bring Back the Child’ launched in Sri Lanka
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse and UNICEF last Thursday created a new initiative called ‘Bring Back the Child’, designed to eliminate the recruitment and use of child soldiers in that country. The national program is designed to prevent child recruitment and also “promote the release of all recruited children” in Sri Lanka. The multimedia initiative [...]
Read More...Weekly News Roundup… Child soldiers held by TMVP in Sri Lanka to be released…
Chief Minister Chandrakanthan of Sri Lanka has pledged that the “child soldier issue” relating to the children being held by the Thamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikai (TMVP) Party will be “concluded in the next three months.” According to the minister, the TMVP party has already handed over the children to their parents and relatives. However, UNICEF [...]
Read More...UN appeals to LTTE to release children
Ms. Radhika Coomaraswamy, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, said in a press release on January 21, 2009 that the LTTE (Tamil Tigers from Sri Lanka) needs to immediately release children held in its ranks, “stress(ing) that both authorities and humanitarian partners should prepare to separate these children and reintegrate them back [...]
Read More...60 child combatants to be released in Sri Lanka
Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP), a Sri Lanka militia (and breakaway faction of the Tamil Tiger rebels) backed by the government, has agreed Thursday to release 60 child soldiers it currently has fighting in its ranks. Human Rights Watch has claimed that from June 2006 to December 2006 they forcefully recruited several hundred children. According [...]
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