The fifth session of peace talks between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government were a revolutionary phase towards putting an end to the long standing involvement of children as combatants in the 19-year-old insurgency war. The Norwegian foreign minister who was responsible for negotiating the fifth phase of the peace talks announced, at the end that talks on the 9th of February 2003, that the LTTE had agreed to put a complete cessation of recruitment of combatants under the age of 18.
In spite of these assurances, the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission ( SLMM) continues to receive complaints from parents in north-east Sri Lanka regarding abductions and recruitments of their children. A recently released article quoted that the LTTE were adopting new strategies such as bribing youngsters with items such motorcycles and watches in return for joining their cadres.
The article alleged that the LTTE were clandestinely operating to conscript children and to collect 'taxes' from the public despite denials by their high command. It said though the recruitment drive scaled down before the arrival of UNICEF executive director Carol Bellamy and the fifth session of peace talks, it has been stepped up under the pretext of schooling the children. Most of these children are said to be school dropouts between the ages of 14-17. In January 2003, 100 children were reported to have been abducted by the LTTE and recruited for combat. The LTTE is known to conduct all it's trainings in thick jungles where civilians or journalists are not allowed.
Responding to these allegations, the President of Sri Lanka, Chandrika Kumaratunge, has demanded that the LTTE provide unfettered access of it's camps to representatives from the UN Committee on Children in Armed Conflict and the UNICEF. The LTTE is yet to respond to this demand and prove to the international community that it is committed to the agreements signed by it's top-level officials in the fifth round of peace talks.