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 into their families.”

In other news, the Tamil Tiger breakaway group TMVP reported on Friday that they “will release the last 20 child soldiers it has in its ranks within two weeks, the group’s leader said.”

“UNICEF says thousands of children are caught in the fighting in Sri Lanka, and estimated in mid-September that at least 1,500 were still serving as soldiers.