February 7, 2003	Friday	Zul Hijjah 5,1423

COLOMBO: Two issues — child soldiers and the removal of government troops from the Jaffna peninsula — are threatening the progress of peace talks to end the bloody 19-year-old separatist war between Tamil Tiger rebels and the Sri Lankan state, the fifth round of which is scheduled for this weekend in Berlin.

The problem of underage soldiers in the ranks of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has taken on an unexpectedly high profile after an intervention last week by UNICEF executive director Carol Bellamy. Her talks with LTTE leaders seemed to confirm the continued recruitment of children, in violation of the Norwegian-brokered ceasefire agreement signed in February last year which ended a conflict in which 65,000 people have died and more than 1.6 million have been displaced.

While the government is unwilling to press the issue for fear of endangering the peace process, there is evidence from independent sources that the LTTE has been continuing to abduct and forcibly recruit young fighters.

Bellamy said after a three-day visit to Sri Lanka — which included talks in the rebel-held town of Kilinochchi with S.P. Thamilselvan, leader of the Tigers’ political wing — that the LTTE had not made any co concrete progress on a plan to cease such recruitment agreed with UNICEF after the last round of talks in December.

“The key steps will be ensuring a commitment to no recruitment happening throughout the whole LTTE and specific steps on a process of releasing children,” Bellamy told a news conference. “We don’t stop with words on a peace document . . . We are satisfied as far as words are concerned. Now we want to see some action.”

In the year since the ceasefire the LTTE has released nearly 500 children, reportedly orphans of war. But during the same period UNICEF has logged 730 complaints of child recruitment.

Human rights groups say several thousand children, some as young as 12, have helped swell LTTE forces since the conflict began. University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna), a watchdog organization made up of Tamil intellectuals, puts the number at nearly 7,000. They accuse the rebels of abducting some children and recruitment by force. Others have joined either through poverty or loyalty to the cause of Tamil independence. There are reports of severe pressure being brought to bear on relatives when a child evades the ‘draft’.

The LTTE told Scandinavian ceasefire monitors last week that it is against child conscription and blamed any continuance on rogue cadres in lower ranks. It asked the monitors for information on those carrying out the abductions, so it could take action. Bellamy said she was hopeful, but the Tigers had to make good their promises. “The jury is still out.”

The other contentious issue to be settled as the fifth round of talks loom are LTTE demands for the removal of the High Security Zones from the Jaffna peninsula. The rebels are insisting that core political issues cannot be discussed until ‘normalcy’ is restored. But the Sri Lankan military is not prepared to move out unless LTTE cadres disarm, withdraw their heavy guns, and begin decommissioning weapons, among other pre-conditions. Sources say there is virtual stalemate at the moment.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service.