A year into the Nordic-brokered ceasefire with the Sri Lankan government, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) continued to recruit children to its guerilla movement at the point of the gun, according to a new report. Independent academic groups in the war-torn northern and eastern provinces said in a recent report that this violated a recent undertaking by the LTTE to the international community to stop recruiting minors. According to the University Teachers For Human Rights (UTHR), most of the abductions during January-March 2003 were carried out while the children were on their way home after school. The LTTE have adopted other methods too. As in the case of the 15-year-old Lakshman Ehambaramoorthy, who was abducted on January 15 while taking part in a football match organized by the LTTE in the eastern town of Batticoloa. Barely a week after this incident, the LTTE abducted two sisters aged 14 and 17. Virajini and Parvathy Selvanayagam were carried away from their home on January 24 in Kayankerni village in the government-controlled area in the east. The two sisters had the presence of mind to shout for help as the LTTE cadres were crossing the final government military checkpoint before entering LTTE-controlled territory. This alerted the government troops who stopped the van and handed over the girls to the police. The following day the two girls were handed over to their family. However, ten schoolboys abducted on the same day, weren't so lucky. The boys, all aged 16, were whisked away while returning from a tuition class in Batticoloa. Their distressed parents were yet to hear of their whereabouts. According to a highly respected Catholic priest from Batticoloa, the LTTE continued to recruit children to its cause. He said the ceasefire had failed to allay parents' fears. "It looks as if no-one is capable of putting an end to this practise," he lamented. He added there were several cases where parents were beaten up by the LTTE cadres when they refused to hand over their children to the organization. Arumugam Mayuran and his wife were severely thrashed for hiding their son when the LTTE launched an abduction raid in the night of January 23 in Batticoloa's Kannankuda village. On March 3, after abducting 14-year-old Rangesh Linganathan, the rebels threatened to kill him if his parents informed officials from Nordic countries who were monitoring the ceasefire. Such threats prevented most parents of abducted children from speaking out. According to the monitoring mission, due to the fear of the LTTE, only one-third of such abductions were reported to the monitors. During the first two months of this year, monitors reported 49 abduction cases, with 108 more pending investigation. As most of the abductions were taking place in LTTE controlled areas where government troops have no access, civilians were left to fend for themselves. On the other hand, the ceasefire agreement signed in February 2002, gave permission to the rebels to enter government territory, albeit unarmed. Ironically, the LTTE made the most of this arrangement, extending its abduction program to government controlled areas as well. Recently, the chairman of the National Child Protection Authority, Professor Hanrendra de Silva, was quoted by a local newspaper as saying that little or nothing was being done by the authorities to safeguard the security of the children. Opposition parties in Parliament blamed the government for allowing the LTTE a free hand not only in its own territory but in government-controlled areas as well. "The government is sweeping this issue under the carpet during the peace talks, fearing that otherwise it would disturbed the congeniality between the two delegations," said Opposition leader in Parliament Mahinda Rajapakse. He added, "It looks like there's no one to take care of these children. I hope at least the international community would do something to put an end to this blatant violation of children's rights." Meanwhile, the LTTE was busy adding to its child army. The UTHR report stated, "When international pressure intensifies, as it does periodically, or there is an important donor's meeting, the mode of conscription changes to more obtrusive, such as abduction of youngsters off the road in ones and twos." At the recently concluded peace talks in Japan, the LTTE shot down a proposal by former Amnesty International chief Ian Martin to allow foreign human-rights monitors to look into the rights violations in the LTTE-controlled areas. [Source: One World Asia]