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`Freed' LTTE child soldiers placed in transit centre

By V.S. Sambandan

COLOMBO OCT. 3. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the UNICEF today joined hands to inaugurate "a transit centre" for child soldiers reportedly released by the Tigers. The first batch of 49 former child soldiers was placed in the transit centre, which was opened in rebel-held Kilinochchi this morning, with a call by the UNICEF to the LTTE to "stop new recruitment of children". The opening of the transit centre also comes at a time when there is a spurt in reports of child recruitment by the Tigers.

The transit centres concept has been mired in controversy as these are to be run by the Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO), an arm of the LTTE. The idea was criticised in sections of the Sri Lankan media, which charged the UNICEF with collaborating with the LTTE.

Media access to today's function in rebel-held Kilinochchi was restricted, with Indian journalists based in Sri Lanka among those kept out of the event, despite requests. While the UNICEF cited lack of facilities, the LTTE said access would depend on UNICEF approval. The UNICEF and the Tigers sent statements and copies of the speeches made at the function.

At the inaugural, the UNICEF's regional director, Sadig Rasheed, said "among many difficult choices, transit centres are the best solution" when children were transiting between fighting ranks and a civil life. On the involvement of the TRO, the UNICEF's resident representative, Ted Chaiban, said: "it is clear that if TRO is not a co-manager, the transit centres — a crucial mechanism for removing children from the LTTE — would not exist". Moreover, the UNICEF "would be staying in all the centres for the duration of the project and ensuring that children will be returned to their families", he said.

The deputy leader of the LTTE's political wing, Sudha Thangan, said the Tigers were at the receiving end of "adverse propaganda" on the child recruitment front, "despite steps taken by them such as running orphanages. As we could not explain our position during war, some people had accepted such propaganda".

The Tigers, he said, had "stopped deployment of child soldiers after a 1998 assurance given to the U.N. special envoy, Ollara Otunnu" and subsequently handed 800 children to their families.

Two more transit centres are to be opened in Batticaloa and Trincomalee at an estimated cost of $1.32 million — as part of a $14.165 million joint action plan between "the Government and the LTTE to address the needs of children affected by war".

Today's controversial inauguration of a transit centre in rebel-held Sri Lanka is against the backdrop of a spurt in complaints of child recruitment by the Tigers, with as many as 210 cases reported between June and September.

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