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By Dr. S. Narapalasingam

Sri Lanka has been under some compulsion from the donors - notably U. S. A, EU and close neighbour India - to come up soon with a permanent political solution to the ethnic problem. The desired kind is indicated in their Tokyo declaration which acknowledged the agreement reached in Oslo in December 2002 by both sides to the conflict to explore a federal structure for devolution of powers within undivided Sri Lanka. The powerful donors also stressed the fact that there cannot be a military solution to the problem and the need to seek a political settlement cannot be circumvented. The response of the Sri Lankan government has been somewhat cool for various reasons discussed here. The notion of ‘home grown’ political solution has been put forward on the grounds the problem is internal and a lasting political solution acceptable to the people in all ethnic communities should be found internally via the process of consultation and compromise.

True, the concerned foreign governments have also pressed for a negotiated political settlement. But the question with whom to negotiate has been a moot point because of the intransigence of the LTTE. The outfit’s supreme leader is known to be a diehard nationalist committed to separate Tamil Eelam in the North-East. By rejecting the Oslo Agreement, he reminded the world his continued commitment to independent Tamil Eelam under LTTE control. Since then the distinction between the idealistic demands of the Tamil separatists and the concerns and aspirations of the voiceless Tamil people living not only in the restive North and East but also elsewhere in Sri Lanka has become increasingly apparent. The reckless decision to resume the war for Eelam that resulted in considerable human losses and unbearable suffering as well as further decline in international support and sympathy for the Tamils in Sri Lanka has accentuated this difference. The LTTE on January 23 dismissed the government’s invitation to stop fighting and resume talks, claiming that there was no sincerity in the offer. ‘The Morning Leader’ January 24 reported that the LTTE Military Spokesperson I. Illanthirayan had told, “The government was making senseless statements to misguide the international community”.

It is fair to surmise that the war has also hardened the attitude of many Sinhalese who have suffered losses during this turbulent period. It has also put the government on UN spotlight with allegations of gross violations of human rights. The affected people are desperate for a permanent political settlement that will end their miseries and anxieties and bring forth a climate of peace and promising future. Having endured decades of immense suffering and knowing the difficulties the LTTE has in abandoning directly the Eelam goal for which many lives have been sacrificed, one can confidently say the majority of Tamils in Sri Lanka are anxious for an early constitutional settlement within undivided Sri Lanka. It is also not unreasonable to think that the declared method of the government to discuss proposals for settlement first with the Sinhala nationalists and then with the Tamil separatists is a way of dodging the challenge facing the present leadership.

Since early 2006, the present government at various meetings with foreign leaders both within and outside Sri Lanka has conveyed the following points with regard to the resolution of the more than two decade-long conflict that has destroyed nearly 70,000 lives and displaced nearly half a million people (UNHCR estimates). Since early last year when the war intensified, despite both sides not wishing to abandon the February 2002 ceasefire agreement nearly 213,000 persons have been displaced and 4,000 killed. The vast majority of the dead during this short period were unarmed civilians, including many women and children.

* The government is ready to share power with the minority Tamils.

* The government is committed to negotiated political settlement.

* “Genuine grievances” of the Tamils should be addressed and the government is waiting for the political proposals of the all-party conference.

* The APC is waiting for the recommendations of the All Party Representative Committee (APRC). A 17-member expert panel or Advisory Committee was set up to assist the APRC. This political process is underway.

Thus, the course taken seemed consistent with the desire to arrive at a ‘home grown’ political solution to the ethnic problem announced in the wake of the pressure of the donor community. The process as expected by the discerning persons has stalled as a result of the differences over apt ‘home grown’ solution amongst the Sinhalese polity.

Tamils want structural change

The Tamil community does not want some changes within the same political system that permitted the dominance of the majority ethnic community over the minorities even in the regions where the latter are in the majority. More than half a century of disappointing experience cannot be erased by some ostensible constitutional changes. Gomin Dayasri, who was a member of the government team at the failed talks last year with the LTTE and a signatory to the Expert panel B (minority) report in his recent Olcott Memorial lecture said, “most of the grievances of the minorities can be attended to by administrative action and the failure to rectify is due to administrative inadvertence and incompetence, lack of political initiative and political leadership. It is difficult to comprehend as to reason why the successive governments have not taken initial meaningful steps to rectify the grievances and build bridges to the Tamil community”.
He also listed “the discovered minority grievances” as follows:-

1 Failure to implement language provisions enshrined in the Constitution;

2 Failure to address the Security Concerns of the Minorities/Regional Minorities;

3 Continuing Kidnappings and Abductions;

4 Compulsory Acquisitions of Lands for Security Purposes;

5 Not attending of the problems of the Internally Displaced Person;

6 Alienation of Land on a Discriminatory Basis;

7 Child Recruitment;

8 Lack of Development Activity in the North and East; and

9 Discrimination in the recruitment for employment.

Among the 9 subjects, 3, 5 and 7 are related to the armed conflict between the government forces and the LTTE and hence are apolitical. But others are the result of the fundamental shortcomings in the political system that permitted the grievances to be ignored for decades. The changes proposed in the Expert panel ‘A’ (majority) report and by Prof. Tissa Vitharana as chairman of the All Party Representative Committee (APRC) in his report based on the reports submitted by the experts set right the known weaknesses in the decision-making system so that the past mistakes do not recur. As I stated in an earlier article (TW 24 – 30 December 2006) – “Minimum devolution and maximum safeguards”- Panel B (minority) report has not addressed fully these structural problems. The recommended safeguards therein are intended to strengthen and protect the very structure that was responsible for the emergence and subsequent escalation of the ethnic problem.

The abhorrence to federalism amongst a section of the Sinhalese polity, who want to be seen as staunch patriots and protectors of the Sinhalese nation and the island, they deem the Sinhalese are destined to rule became increasingly visible after the November 2005 Presidential election. President Mahinda Rajapaksa won the election narrowly with the support of the Sinhala nationalists. His election manifesto ‘Mahinda Chinthanaya’ or vision for the future of the island as he now says also indicated his commitment to the unitary structure. He won with the direct support of the ultra nationalist parties JVP and JHU as well as the indirect support of the LTTE which forced the Tamil voters particularly in the North to boycott the election. The intended strategy was to create a climate helpful for the division of the land by ‘other means’.

JVP’s uncompromising stand

The actions of the JVP since it emerged as a third political force in the South have been to obstruct the efforts to devolve powers to the minorities through constitutional change. Like other chauvinistic parties believing in the supremacy of the majority Sinhalese, the JVP wants to preserve the centralized structure with some powers decentralized under the overriding control of the centre. Its political ambition is to marginalize both the UNP and SLFP by mobilizing support of the rural Sinhalese people and the urban working class, a strategy similar to that the SLFP leader S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike used with great success in the mid 1950s. The following actions and strategies illustrate JVP’s uncompromising stand on the ethnic issue.

(i) Although the UNP is the No. 1 enemy of the JVP, it supported the UNP leader, Ranil Wickremesinghe’s move in August 2000 to scuttle the Bill introduced by President Chandrika Kumaratunga in the Parliament for devolving substantial powers to the proposed Regional Councils.

(ii) It opposed President Kumaratunga’s PTOMS proposal permitting the LTTE to work jointly with the government in the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the areas in the North-East affected by the December 2004 tsunami. The Supreme Court ruled that the move was unconstitutional.

(iii) The Supreme Court also ruled in favour of the JVP in the fundamental rights case filed against the merger of the Northern and Eastern provinces. The judges unanimously declared the temporary merger introduced 18 years ago under Emergency Regulation was illegal. Incidentally, the Cease-Fire Agreement (CFA) that remains still valid on paper despite the numerous violations by both sides is of great concern to the JVP and is agitating for its abrogation before it acquires a life of more than 5 years! It is baffling when an arrangement made under an agreement between two internationally recognized sovereign nations is declared null and void after 18 years, how the contents of the CFA which is only a MoU like the ones between President Rajapaksa and various parties will acquire legitimacy after 5 years. But still the JVP does not want to take any chances!

(iv) The JVP urged and backed the sacking of the UNF government in 2004, which seriously damaged the political future of Ranil Wickremesinghe. This also stopped any move to resume the suspended talks with the LTTE. The Tigers were ready to discuss their ISGA proposals with the Government.

(v) JVP withdrew from the All-Party Representative Committee (APRC) because it totally disagreed with the Majority Report of the Expert panel and now also with the Chairman Prof Tissa Vitharana’s report. The party does not want even the latter to be discussed at any formal meeting of the APRC. The JVP will decide whether to participate or not in the All Party Conference (APC) when the agenda is announced. Prof. Tissa Vitharana said the JVP did not attend the last two meetings of the APRC.

(vi) This radical party is dead against UNP members, especially those in favour of a federal solution to the ethnic problem joining the government. The JVP Politburo member Anura Kumara Dissanayaka reportedly said on January 21: “The ideology of those who hope to cross over and their working arrangements with the Government, are key factors on which the Central Committee will decide. We disapprove federalists such as Prof G.L. Peiris, Milinda Moragoda and Rajitha Senaratne joining the Government. They have acted against the interests of the country. However, this does not indicate that we welcome others who are expecting to crossover.”

This matter was also raised at the recent meeting the Joint Front of National Organisations had with President Rajapaksa at ‘Temple Trees’. Sinhala Jathika Sangamaya leader S.L. Gunasekera, also drew attention to reports that several of the UNP defectors were committed ‘federalists’ — those who support a federal constitution. JVP’s Wimal Weerawansa who represented the National Patriotic Movement raised matters relating to proposals to devolve power. The President announced at that meeting, “there would be no change in the policies of his administration after a group of UNP parliamentarians join his Government”. He is reported to have said, the UNPers were joining the Government accepting the policies that had already been enunciated in the ‘Mahinda Chinthanaya’. Among the other organizations that took part in the meeting were the Patriotic Bhikku Front, the National Bhikku Front, the Ruhuna Bhikku Front and the National Movement Against Terrorism.

President’s predicament

The opposition among the nationalists in the South to changing the unitary character of the present constitution inherited from previous constitutions seems to have strengthened after the November 2005 Presidential election. The first unitary constitution of independent Ceylon (Sri Lanka after 1972) had at least some checks and balances but these were removed by the governments led by either the SLFP or the UNP, the two main political parties that have continually engaged in competitive party politics at the expense of long-term national interest.

Chris Morris in the BBC World Service weekly programme – ‘From our own correspondent’ – 20 January 2007 said succinctly about President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s predicament. He said he knew the President some 15 years ago as “a member of parliament standing up for the rights of southern civilians, caught between a brutal Maoist uprising and an equally brutal military response. Now he has risen to the top of the political tree backed by Sinhalese nationalists. …At De Zoysa Circus, a busy road junction next to Colombo General Hospital, a large billboard of the president stares down at passing motorists. It is not the image which attracts my attention though - it is the slogan which accompanies it: “He is our leader; he is our president; he is next to King Dutugemunu.”

He also explained the symbolism and potency of this slogan to ethnic fears. It reminds “the legend of Dutugemunu, the mighty Sinhalese king who ruled more than 2,000 years ago - the warrior who went into battle on his elephant to conquer and defeat the usurping Tamil king Elara”. He opined: “Where many Sinhalese see an old-fashioned hero who unified the island, many Tamils see the deification of Dutugemunu as proof that the majority community is determined to dominate the whole country”. Having got into the trap of ethnic chauvinism, partly due to his ambition to become the powerful head of the government, a position described by its creator as powerful enough to do anything except changing a man into woman and vice versa he finds it difficult to accept even a ‘home grown’ solution coming from an ethnically mixed team of experts. The Expert panel (majority group) has 11 members from all three ethnic communities, while all the 4 members of the second Panel (minority group) are Sinhalese. President Rajapaksa is also disappointed with Prof. Tissa Vitharana’s report as it has incorporated many recommendations in the Expert Panel (majority) report. Sri Lanka is not mentioned as either unitary or federal state in both reports.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa on 12 January assured the Bishops of Jaffna, Mannar and Anuradhapura that a political solution to the national issue acceptable to all as hoped by the Bishops will be found after the next All Party Conference (APC). The President said the Government was committed to this task and will make all endeavours to achieve this after the next APC. It is not only the APC card but also the MoU signed by the President and the Opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe last October is shown as sign of positive developments towards a political solution.

The Government’s chief negotiator at the last peace talks and Health Care and Nutrition Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva told the visiting Italian Deputy Foreign Minister Gianni Vernetti on January 8 that the MoU signed by the leaders of the two main political parties have been welcomed by many countries. He also mentioned that the Government was fully committed towards a negotiated settlement with full devolution of powers to the North and East. The foreigner may not have noticed another dubious point in the statement that the government also hoped to obtain the support of the JVP and the JHU towards its efforts to solve the national problem.

On January 9 the Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa reiterated his steadfast commitment to a negotiated political solution to the national issue, at a meeting with visiting Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee at ‘Temple Trees’. President emphasized the high priority his administration has assigned in this regard to the mechanism of the All Party Conference (APC), and his confidence that the deliberations within this forum would contribute to a national consensus on devolution. Both the APC and the MoU are now stuck by irreconcilable political differences and questionable aims.

According to Sunday Island 21 January President Rajapaksa is likely to unveil a set of political proposals for a negotiated settlement “in April after the military subdue the LTTE further”. The paper also said, “the hotly disputed recommendations made by a panel of experts in a report dubbed by the media as the ‘majority report’ and the one presented by All Party Representative Committee chief and Minister Tissa Vitharana won’t have a place in the forthcoming Rajapaksa proposals”. There is the feeling among some concerned persons that the current leaders are playing the same old power-seeking game for narrow gains that has brought the country to the present disastrous state.

This thinking is seen explicitly in the following comment (UTHR- Jaffna Briefing No. 6 Released 22 January 2007). The appointment of the Experts’ Panel for the APRC and the MoU signed with the opposition UNP gave some hope that the Southern polity is coming to its senses. Although many doubted the true intentions, both initiatives clearly pointed the way forward. The majority report of the Experts’ Panel outlined a political initiative to undermine extremisms on both sides of the ethnic divide and created some hope. The MoU with the UNP also has the potential to charter that new course. No one in their right mind thought the LTTE would become amenable to any political settlement and disarm voluntarily. Yet a political settlement that gave dignity to the minorities would have undermined the LTTE’s ability to manipulate the Tamil people and given the Government stronger moral ground to check them militarily as well. But the manner in which both the APRC process and the MoU with the UNP are being manipulated or made redundant by various forces including the Government to further narrow political interests, reveals the extent to which the Southern polity is hostage to extremist elements.

National interest

In the past, ‘national interest’ has either been ignored or taken different meanings depending on the political exigencies of ruling parties and their leaders. The interest of the country as a whole and of the people in all ethnic communities is crucial in the search for a permanent political solution to the national question. To the Sinhala patriots, ‘national interest’ means their interests or rather what they think as the interest of the Sinhalese people. This must take precedence over others. The idea of sustaining Sinhala supremacy stems from both the division of the population into majority and minority ethnic communities and the imagined fear of being oppressed by a politically powerful minority.

Apparently, this fear is in respect of the minority Tamils and not Muslims because of the presence of some 56 million Tamils in Tamil Nadu. They find it difficult to accept the view, especially when it comes to political power that Sri Lanka is a multi-ethnic country and all communities have equal rights to safeguard their security and interests and equal opportunities for social and economic advancement. However, it is noteworthy the Sinhalese community has no problem in accepting Sri Lankan society to be multi-religious (seen from the many religious holidays and Buddhist viharas, Hindu temples, churches and mosques in all parts of the country and common holy places like Kataragama called as Kathirgamam by Tamils revered equally by Buddhists and Hindus) but the same liberal view is lacking when it comes to linguistic difference.

The difference in the two dialects is compounded further by the fact that a part of the country close to Tamil Nadu is inhabited mainly by Tamils, a demographic pattern that has been a distinctive feature of the island for several decades before independence. Many Tamils who are settled in the South have their ancestral roots in this part of the island. The public utterances of some Tamil politicians/nationalists in neighbouring Tamil Nadu have not helped to dispel the imagined fears of some Sinhalese. The ancient chronicles have little relevance to those living in the modern world. Unfortunately, some seem to think they are still living in the past. Successive governments have done little to promote national integration and in fact the policies pursued such as the segregation of Sinhalese and Tamil students have been very damaging. After independence, it is not the Tamils but the power-hungry Sinhalese leaders who sowed the seeds of separation.

National interest should not mean the interest of the majority Sinhalese. Nor should it imply the interest of the Sinhala nation. The Tamil separatists believe in a parallel Tamil Nation. In fact some of them believe the ongoing armed conflict to be between two separate nations. Here in lies the problem with the ‘home grown’ political solution. The search for a viable ‘home grown’ solution entails the concept of one nation and the associated one ‘home land’. Sri Lanka is a multi ethnic and multi-regional country with diverse distribution of the ethnic population. People in the South, who are mostly Sinhalese, cannot assume they represent the people in the entire country. Likewise the people in the North, who are mostly Tamils if they want to avoid conflict with other ethnic communities and this is essential for lasting peace must accept the reality (from both internal and external angles) and seek amicable way of living with the Sinhalese. This requires a conciliatory and not confrontational approach to mutually trustworthy political solution.

The way forward

The observations of the group of distinguished Sri Lankans (including some expatriates) from all three communities in their open letter praising the 11 members of the expert panel (the majority) for their report endorse their recommended frame for a ‘home grown’ political solution. The letter quite fittingly says: “The document that you have produced is of immense importance for Sri Lanka’s political and constitutional future and your collective effort in producing it will go down in history as an act of rare courage, bold vision and great integrity. While reflecting the rich diversity of the ‘constituent peoples of Sri Lanka’, you have risen above our ethnic differences and brought into political relief our common humanity. You have proposed the foundation upon which we can build a new Lanka inclusive of the Sinhalese, the Sri Lankan Tamils, the Muslims and the Upcountry Tamils”.

The letter has also suggested the method to find a way around the present quagmire and move forward towards a ‘home grown’ solution. “The onus is now on President Rajapaksa and the leaders of the SLFP and the UNP to take the lead and act on these recommendations. The JVP and the JHU have predictably come out against the two reports (the other is the one prepared by Prof. Vitharana incorporating many proposals in the Expert Panel ‘majority’ report). They are entitled to disagree with the recommendations of these reports for agreeing to disagree is a part of democracy, but it should not prevent the movement towards a political solution”.

Finally the statement that “the LTTE will find it impossible to ignore, or reject, a political solution that has broad support among the Sinhalese, the Sri Lankan Tamils, the Muslims and the Upcountry Tamils, and carries the endorsement of the international community” is also significant. The rebel leadership will also find an opening to extricate from the present dilemma by discontinuing the fighting without openly abandoning the Eelam goal. This is an opportunity that the leaders committed to unity, peace and future welfare of the country cannot afford to miss. The country has paid a terrible price for neglecting the national problem over the past several decades and cannot afford to incur more losses by way of destruction of acquired assets as well as lost opportunities for development and higher standard of living for all citizens.

[The writer is Former Additional Deputy Secretary to the Treasury, Sri Lanka and UN Advisor, Development Economics/Planning]

By: Shabnam Farook

There is no God, there is no God if he doesn’t come back” lamented Professor Ravindranath’s grief stricken daughter Dushyanthi who has learnt to cope up with the pain of not knowing how, or where her father is but there are visible signs that she is grieving.

It is exactly one month and one week since Prof. Sivasubramanium Ravindranath the vice chancellor of the Eastern University was abducted in broad day light when he was attending a conference at BMICH.

His abduction caused wide spread condemnation and was also highlighted internationally.

[Professor Sivasubramaniam Raveendranath, Vice Chancellor of Eastern University]

Though his family is trying hard to carry on their lives in spite of his disappearance, not knowing his whereabouts has taken a toll on everyone, specially the Professor’s wife Jegadeeshwari who is his shadow.

“My mother depends on my father for everything, she wont, even go the market without him, he does everything for us, she is really upset and worried, she is a diabetic patient and this has affected her health” says his concerned daughter.

Dushyanthi says that her mother’s health is slowly deteriorating as she is reluctant to take her medication or have proper meals.

The world knows Prof.Ravindranath as a renowned scholar and as the Vice Chancellor of the Eastern University, but what was he like as a husband? and a father ?

“He was a very kind and soft spoken man who wouldn’t harm anybody, that is why this took us by surprise, and we are very upset, I’m 26 and he hasn’t used a harsh word on me even once, he treated every body alike from his academic staff to the youngest students at the university” said teary eyed Dushyanthi Malawaran.

While most of us spend our free time idling he used every ounce of his energy to do some good for others specially children who were poor, deprived and victims of the tsunami in the Batticaloa district.

Prof. Ravindranath shied away from indulgence and enjoyed simple pleasures.

“He wouldn’t even where socks and shoes and always used slippers, he was comfortable in them, if you see him on the road, you wouldn’t know he was a Vice Chancellor”, sobbed Dushyanthi.

Dushyanthi took me through the unfortunate day her father was abducted causing shock waves around the country……..

“From the 11th he was going to the conference continuously and always came home for lunch, that day it was 2.45 and he hadn’t returned I was worried so I called his mobile but it was switched off, I called the driver but I couldn’t get through to him. At 4 o’clock I went up to the top of the road looking for him, but at around 6 o’clock I knew something was wrong and something had happened to him because he had threats. Later I contacted my husband and we went to the police, to file an entry at the police station.”

“We are trying everything possible to find him, the police haven’t got any clues as yet, but they are doing everything they can, my husband and I have gone to the police and every other person we know, hoping for the best”.

Professor Ravindranath had arrived in Colombo last October to hand in his resignation, when unknown abductors who claimed to have kidnapped the Dean of the Arts faculty of the Eastern University Mr. Bala Sukumar on September 30 had called the

Professor the very next day and offered to set the dean free in exchange of the professor’s resignation. However his resignation was not accepted as it was based on mere threats.

Since then the Professor, his wife and their youngest daughter have been living in Dushyanthi’s flat amidst the great objection of the Professor who found life in Colombo boring and wanted to be with his beloved University.

His only vision in life is to develop the Eastern University and see to grow by stature - a vision that he worked with untiring dedication.

“He used to get up at 4 o’clock in the morning and spend all his time browsing through the computer collecting funds for the people of Batticaloa, he also found lectures and prepared notes for MA students, which Vice Chancellor actually takes time to find notes for the students?” questions his daughter who is clearly surprised at the turn of events.

Dushyanthi who is worried about her father’s health condition says that he suffers from high blood pressure, and hopes that he is in good health, a hope that is fading with every passing day.

Professor, Ravindranath, was the perfect grandfather who showered little Kaniska Dushyanthi’s 2 year old daughter with all the love he could give and she too understands that something bad had happened to her ‘Ammappa’ (grand father).

All Mrs.Ravindranath, Dushyanthi and her sister want is to see him safe and with them enjoying the little moments that he made a difference in their lives and many others’ lives he touched with his kindness.

A ray of hope is seen in Dushyantih’s eyes when she sighs” The Chairman finally accepted his resignation, we are hoping that this will make a difference and he will be returned to us as soon as possible.”

On the 30th of this month Prof.Ravindranath will celebrate his 56th birthday and they can do is hope and pray that he would celebrate this milestone of his life with their family, friends and loved ones. As Martin Luther King, Jr once said - “we must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope”

Human Rights Watch Report - 1
Sri Lankan Govt complicit in Karuna group abductions says HRW

BY D.B.S. Jeyaraj

[transCurrents.com] The Human Rights Watch based in New York has accused the Sri Lankan Government of complicity in abductions perpetrated by the breakaway tiger faction known as the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Puligal (TMVP) in the Island’s eastern province.

The TMVP is led by ex - Eastern tiger commander Vinayagamoorthy Muraleetharan alias “Col” Karuna who broke away from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2004 and is now collaborating with the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) in waging war against his former organization.

The Karuna group or TMVP is actively involved in abducting and conscripting children and young adults with the GOSL allegedly aiding and abetting charges HRW the respected human rights watchdog .

In the new 100-page report, “Complicit in Crime: State Collusion in Abductions and Child Recruitment by the Karuna Group,” Human Rights Watch documents a pattern of abductions and forced recruitment by the Karuna group over the past year. With case studies, maps and photographs, it shows how Karuna cadres operate with impunity in government-controlled areas, abducting boys and young men, training them in camps, and deploying them for combat.

“The Karuna group is abducting children in broad daylight in areas firmly under government control,” says Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The government is fully aware of the abductions but allows them to happen because it’s eager for an ally against the Tamil Tigers.”

Based on research in Sri Lanka, including areas where the Karuna group operates, the report features testimony from two dozen family members of boys and young men abducted by the Karuna group. They described armed Karuna members forcibly taking their brothers, nephews and sons from their homes, workplaces, temples, playgrounds, public roads, and even a wedding.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has documented more than 200 cases of child recruitment by the Karuna group in Sri Lanka’s eastern districts, where the group is active. But the real number is certainly much higher due to underreporting.

Children are not the only targets. Human Rights Watch found that the Karuna group has abducted and forcibly recruited hundreds of young men between ages 18 and 30. Human Rights Watch knows of only two cases in which the Karuna group abducted girls. It generally targets poor families, and often those who have already had a child recruited by the Tamil Tigers.

According to the HRW report ” At least since June 2006, and probably before, the Sri Lankan government has known about the Karuna abductions. The districts of the east where they have taken place are firmly under government control, with myriad military and police checkpoints and security force camps”.

“After years of condemning child recruitment by the Tamil Tigers, the government is now complicit in the same crimes,” says Jo Becker, child rights advocate at Human Rights Watch, who has written extensively about the Tamil Tigers. “The government’s collusion on child abductions by the Karuna group highlights its hypocrisy.”

In one incident in June 2006, the Karuna group abducted 13 boys and young men, holding some of them for a while in a shop across the street from an army post. Some of the parents pleaded with the soldiers to intervene. Two soldiers spoke with the Karuna group members, parents told Human Rights Watch, but the soldiers did not stop the abduction.

On the same day in another village, soldiers from the Sri Lankan army gathered seven boys and young men in a field, checked their IDs, and took their photographs. Members of the Karuna group arrived that night and abducted four of the seven, although it remains unclear in this instance whether the army forces were deliberately acting in collusion with the Karuna group.

After abducting boys and young men, the Karuna group often holds them temporarily in the nearest office of its political party, the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP), which are routinely guarded by the Sri Lankan military or police. Parents told Human Rights Watch that they either saw their abducted sons in these offices or TMVP officials confirmed to families that they had been there.

After a few days, the Karuna group usually transfers abductees to one of its camps in the jungle about 10 kilometers northwest of Welikanda town in the Polonnaruwa district, about 50 kilometers northwest of Batticaloa town. Welikanda is where the Sri Lankan Army’s 23rd division has its base. The area is firmly under government control, as is the main A11 road from the eastern districts to the Welikanda area. Travel through the area necessitates passing through numerous army and police checkpoints, and transporting abducted youth to the camps would have been impossible without the complicity of government security forces. The Karuna camp at Mutugalla village is near a Sri Lankan army post notes HRW

“Not only do government forces fail to stop the abductions, but they allow the Karuna group to transport kidnapped children through checkpoints on the way to their camps,” Becker says.

Human Rights Watch said that the Sri Lankan police are also complicit in their unwillingness to seriously investigate complaints filed by the parents of abducted boys and young men. In some cases, the police reportedly refused to register parents’ complaints. In other cases, the police registered the complaint but failed to undertake what the family considered a proper investigation. In no known case did the police secure the child’s release observes the HRW report

In a November interview with Human Rights Watch, Karuna denied allegations that his forces were abducting or recruiting children. He said his forces had no members under age 20, and that they would discipline any commander who tried to recruit a person under that age. He subsequently made commitments to the UN to issue policy statements banning child recruitment, to release any child found among the Karuna group’s ranks, and to provide UNICEF with access to his camps.

On January 2, 2007, the TMVP, Karuna’s political party, provided UNICEF with regulations for its military wing, stating 18 as the minimum age for recruitment, and specifying penalties for members who conscript children.

There is no sign yet that these commitments are being honored. Local human rights activists and international agencies report that the Karuna group continued to abduct boys and young men in November and December 2006.

In November, after UN envoy Allan Rock raised allegations of government complicity in Karuna abductions, the Sri Lankan government promised an investigation. Instead, government and military officials launched attacks against Rock’s credibility.

“The government must stop making excuses and launch a serious and impartial investigation of government complicity in Karuna crimes,” Adams said. “If the government won’t investigate, then it must allow an independent, international inquiry.”

The LTTE has long abducted children into its forces, and used them as infantry soldiers, intelligence officers, medics, and even suicide bombers. Human Rights Watch documented the practice in a 2004 report, “Living in Fear: Child Soldiers and the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka.”

The new report also includes updated information on Tamil Tiger child abductions and urges the UN to impose targeted sanctions on the group because of its status as a repeat offender. The UN should insist that the Karuna group immediately adopt and implement an action plan to end all recruitment and use of child soldiers, and consider targeted sanctions if it fails to do so, Human Rights Watch advocated.

On February 9, a UN Security Council working group on children and armed conflict is scheduled to consider reported violations against children by all parties to Sri Lanka’s armed conflict. The working group will make recommendations for Security Council action.

Human Rights Watch has also called on the LTTE, TMVP, and the GOSL to stop the recruitment of children. The Karuna group and the Tamil Tigers should immediately release all children among their ranks.

Human Rights Watch has published more than fifteen in-depth reports on the recruitment and use of children as soldiers by governments and non-state armed groups throughout the world. Reports have previously documented the practice in Angola, Burma, Burundi, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lebanon, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Sudan, and Uganda. A previous Human Rights Watch report on child recruitment in Sri Lanka, “Living in Fear: Child Soldiers and the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka,” was published in 2004.

The current report is based on a month-long research mission in Sri Lanka in October 2006. It presents information from 24 interviews with 20 families of abducted boys and young men in the districts of Ampara, Batticaloa, and Trincomalee (16 mothers, four fathers, two sisters, one grandmother, and one aunt), as well as witnesses to abductions.

In addition, Human Rights Watch spoke with Sri Lankan human rights activists and humanitarian aid workers, as well as foreigners working in Sri Lanka with international humanitarian organizations.

For reasons of security, many people spoke to Human Rights Watch on the condition that the report not mention their names or other identifying information. Therefore HRW has omitted details about individuals and incidents where it believed that information could place a person at risk.

On November 21, 2006 Human Rights Watch wrote to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse and to the Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights to ask for information about government attempts to investigate abductions and forced recruitment by the Karuna group .. A follow-up letter was sent in early December. As of January 15, 2007, neither the president’s office nor the ministry had replied.

On November 22, Human Rights Watch wrote a letter regarding abductions and forced recruitment to V. Muralitharan, a.ka. Colonel Karuna .. V. Muralitharan contacted Human Rights Watch by telephone on November 29, and his views are reflected in this report.

On November 28, Human Rights Watch wrote to S.P. Tamilselvan, head of the LTTE’s political wing, to ask about LTTE efforts to end the use of child soldiers.. SP Tamilselvan replied in a letter dated December 5, 2006.

HRW notes that in consistence with international law, the words “child” and “children” refer to anyone under the age of 18 wherever mentioned in the report.

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Human Rights Watch Report - 2
Lanka Govt denies complicity in conscription of children by TMVP

By D.B.S. Jeyaraj

[transCurrents.com] The latest report released by Human Rights Watch on the activities of the renegade tiger faction led by Vinayagamoorthy Muraleetharan alias “Col” Karuna amounts to a damning indictment of the Sri Lankan Government’s complicity in the conscription of children and adults in the Eastern province.

The report was released on Wednesday January 24th.The Sri Lankan Government has officially denied complicity in the exercise but is widely disbelieved by knowledgeable observers.

Relevant extracts from the 100 page HRW report “Complicit in Crime: State Collusion in Abductions and Child Recruitment by the Karuna Group” are extensively reproduced here to provide an insight into this reprehensible state of affairs.

” Residents of Sri Lanka’s eastern districts frequently spoke of government complicity in Karuna group abductions as an obvious fact. Tamils in Ampara, Batticaloa, and Trincomalee districts say they have seen Karuna members working with the army and police at checkpoints–an allegation the government denies–and that armed Karuna cadre walk freely through villages and towns in areas under government control, sometimes wearing Sri Lankan army uniforms.

Among international monitors and aid workers the connection is also clear. “We have known for some time that there is a level of co-operation between certain elements of the security forces and the Karuna faction,” a spokesperson of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission said in November 2006. “We are compiling more information and will present the government with a comprehensive report on the matter.”

Regarding recruitment of children by the Karuna group, the staff member of one international agency was more blunt. “Recruitment is happening openly and with impunity,” the person said. “It’s incomprehensible for us that the government would say they don’t know what’s going on.”

Until mid-November 2006, the government denied any knowledge of abductions by the Karuna group. But the following, each already noted above, demonstrate that government officials must have known of the abductions, at least since the middle of June 2006, and probably before.

In June 2006 the Karuna group abducted 13 boys and young men from one village in the Batticaloa district. Four families of abductees told Human Rights Watch that the Sri Lankan army witnessed the abductions from its camp across the road. The parents requested help and soldiers spoke with members of the Karuna group but did not take effective action to secure the abductees’ release.

On June 22, UNICEF issued a public statement about abductions by the Karuna group and called on the Sri Lankan government to investigate:

UNICEF in Sri Lanka is calling for immediate action to halt the abduction and forced recruitment of children by the Karuna group. Over the past week, the agency has verified reports of thirty cases in Batticaloa district. Reports of abduction and forced recruitment of boys under the age of 18 from the area have increased since March of this year.

In July a group of mothers from Batticaloa district submitted a petition to the Supreme Court about abductions allegedly by the Karuna group. The 48 mothers sent the names of their children with all relevant information about the abduction to President Rajapakse, the minister for disaster management and human rights, and the Human Rights Commission, as well as to the United Nations.

On December 1 Minister of Disaster Management and Human Rights Mahinda Samarasinghe told Human Rights Watch that he had only seen the petition about two months before, although he conceded that it might have been sent in July. Investigations by the army into some of the 48 cases began in December 2006. According to local human rights groups, the army pressured many of the parents not to identify the Karuna group. In January 2007 Samarasinghe told a journalist that the police were also asked to investigate.

Additional evidence of government knowledge and complicity in Karuna abductions can be gleaned from the location of Karuna camps where abducted children are held. According to parents who visited their children in these camps near Welikanda, the area is under close government control, to such an extent that in some places Karuna checkpoints are within eyesight of the army or police

. Communication and coordination between the Karuna group and Sri Lankan army and police was evident from accounts of parents going to Karuna camps to see their sons. To get to the Karuna camps, most parents took a bus to the Sewanpitiya junction with the main A11 road, where the Sri Lankan army has a checkpoint. There, visiting parents sometimes had to give their names to the soldiers (sometimes also their identification cards), who informed persons indicated to be members of the Karuna group that the parents were on their way. Then the parents took trishaws or buses to the Karuna camp. Karuna forces speaking Tamil and wearing green Sri Lanka army uniforms were in the area, they said.

“I had to go through a Sri Lankan army checkpoint at the junction. The head of our group gave the names of our kids to the army officer at the checkpoint and the camp we were going to,” the mother of an abducted 16-year-old said. “The army let us go.”

In one case documented by Human Rights Watch, Sri Lankan soldiers spoke with the mothers while they were trying to visit their sons. The mother of a young man who with other parents saw her son in a Karuna camp said the soldiers based nearby were aware of the reason for the visit but did nothing to secure the abductee’s release:

The first time we went to the camp in Mutugalla, two Sri Lankan army soldiers came from the army camp within 30 minutes and asked the Karuna guys what the mothers were doing there. The Karuna guys replied that we came to visit our children. The two soldiers asked us questions and asked what happened. They were speaking Sinhala and we didn’t understand very well. They spoke in Sinhala with the Karuna members. After they spoke to the soldiers, the Karuna guys asked us to leave the camp and we left.

In one of the most egregious reported cases of government complicity, local human rights activists and the mother of an abducted young man told Human Rights Watch that one child who escaped from a Karuna camp had gone to the Sri Lankan army for protection, but the soldiers handed him back to the Karuna group. Human Rights Watch did not independently verify this case.

The main road from the eastern districts to the Welikanda area is firmly under government control and highly militarized. Transporting several hundred abducted boys and young men during the year to the Karuna camps would have been impossible without the knowledge of government security forces. Travel in the area requires going through numerous checkpoints of the army and police.

Along the A15 road, which runs north-south from Trincomalee down the coast to Batticaloa, and along the A11, which runs east-west from north of Batticaloa town to Welikanda, it is impossible to travel more than 10 kilometers without some form of security control. When Human Rights Watch drove the roughly 50 kilometer stretch between Welikanda and Batticaloa town on October 13, researchers counted more than 14 checkpoints, ranging in size from mobile controls to permanent camps. According to a humanitarian agency active in the east, government security forces typically maintain about nine checkpoints between Welikanda and Valaichchenai on the A11 alone; two of them are where passengers get out of their vehicles and are searched.

Transporting abducted boys and young men from Ampara district would prove even harder. The coastal A4 road from Ampara to Batticaloa town has a strong presence of the police Special Task Force (STF). On October 17, Human Rights Watch observed three large STF camps along the route.

Another place where parents have seen their abducted sons is the TMVP office in Batticaloa town. International aid agencies have also seen armed children on the premises. When Human Rights Watch walked by the office on October 16, it was guarded on three sides by the Sri Lankan police. International aid workers said that the police had been protecting the building since construction began in early 2006. Human Rights Watch also observed the TMVP office in Akkaraipattu, which was guarded by the STF. The TMVP office in Trincomalee was guarded by the navy.

Government protection of the TMVP is understandable because party offices have come under repeated attack by the LTTE. But the presence of security forces around the buildings makes it highly unlikely that they failed to see abducted children on the premises.

Both the government and the Karuna group deny any coordination between them. Sri Lankan defense spokesperson Keheliya Rambukwella told the media: “We have been right throughout denying that we are involved with them,” referring to the Karuna group. Karuna told Human Rights Watch in late November 2006: “We do not cooperate with the army and the army does not cooperate with us.” As if to suggest that cooperation would mean impunity for his forces, he added: “Thirty of our cadres have been arrested by the army for carrying arms.”

But residents in eastern districts routinely observed the close ties between government and Karuna forces. Staffers from two international agencies working in the eastern districts told Human Rights Watch that the easiest way for them to contact the Karuna group was through the Sri Lankan military.

The Sri Lankan government is ultimately responsible for providing security to ensure that civilians are not abducted by armed groups and that children are not recruited, voluntarily or otherwise, to take part in armed conflict. This is particularly the case in areas under the government’s effective control.

The government security forces active in the eastern districts are the Sri Lankan army, the navy, the regular police, and the police’s Special Task Force, which is engaged in counterinsurgency operations. Unless stated otherwise, officers noted below were, according to the information available, in command during Human Rights Watch’s visit in October 2006.

In Batticaloa district responsibility for security is primarily with the army, which maintains a network of outposts and camps. Three army brigades operate in the district: The 231 brigade, commanded by Colonel Veeraman, is responsible for the district’s west. The 232 brigade, commanded by Colonel Napagoda, is responsible for the north. The 233 brigade, commanded by Lt. Col. Anura Sudasingha, is in Batticaloa town. All of the Batticaloa brigades report to the army’s 23rd division headquartered in Welikanda, commanded by Brigadier Daya Ratnayaka. For most of 2006, Commander of Security Forces Headquarters-East was Major General Nissanka Wijesinghe. In late December he was replaced by Major General Parakrama Pannipitiya.

In Trincomalee district, the army’s 22nd division has official responsibility, commanded by Maj. Gen. Samarasinghe. Trincomalee has a large navy presence because of its major naval base, and knowledgeable sources say that Navy Commander Rear Admiral Samirathunga is the de facto commander.

President Rajapakse is the commander-in-chief of Sri Lanka’s armed forces, and he holds the portfolio of Minister of Defense. The Secretary of Defense, Public Security, Law and Order is the president’s brother, Gotabaya Rajapakse.58 Chief of the Defense Staff is Air Chief Marshal Donald Perera. Commander of the army, since December 6, 2005, is Lieutenant General Sarath Fonseka.

In Ampara, Batticaloa, and Trincomalee districts the STF also plays an important role, especially since July 2006 when the military mobilized for the fighting further north. Around that time the STF assumed security responsibility for Batticaloa town.

It remains unclear who are the leaders of the Karuna group in the eastern districts. According to the parents of abductees, local human rights activists, and international aid workers, the TMVP political leader for Ampara and Batticaloa is a man named Pradipan, who runs the office in Batticaloa town. Another leader mentioned is a man called Mangalan. In Akkaraipattu, the TMVP office is run by a man named Sindujan. A man named Bharathy has been implicated in conscription by the Karuna group in Welikanda

In early November 2006, a special advisor to the UN special representative for children and armed conflict, Allan Rock, visited Sri Lanka to investigate conditions for children, primarily in the north and east. He focused on compliance with the 2003 Action Plan for Children Affected by Conflict, which the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE had endorsed. Both sides had pledged to work with UNICEF to end child recruitment and to release children in their ranks.

At the end of his 10-day mission, Rock met with President Rajapakse and later held a press conference in Colombo to announce his preliminary findings. First, he said, the LTTE had not respected its commitments under the Action Plan. The recruitment of children continues and the LTTE had failed to release several hundred children in its ranks.

Rock also criticized the Karuna group for continuing to abduct and recruit children, particularly in Batticaloa district. Between May and November 2006, he said, UNICEF has recorded 135 cases of underage recruitment, and the evidence suggested the trend was on the rise.

Rock also charged “certain government elements” of complicity in abductions by the Karuna group. He said that his mission:

Found strong and credible evidence that certain elements of the government security forces are supporting and sometimes participating in the abductions and forced recruitment of children by the Karuna faction.

The mission met with the parents of many of the abducted children in Batticaloa district. As a result, it learned of eye-witness evidence that links the Karuna faction abductions to certain government elements. Based on the evidence as a whole, the mission concluded that some government security forces are actively participating in these criminal acts.

Rock announced that the Karuna group and the Sri Lankan government had responded constructively to the allegations. The TMVP told him it would forbid underage recruitment and release any children in the Karuna group. The party also agreed to work with UNICEF to arrange the release of abducted children.

Rock said that he received assurances from President Rajapakse that he would order an immediate investigation to determine whether any security forces were complicit in Karuna abductions. Should such evidence emerge, the president said, he would hold accountable those who violated the law.

Other sectors of the government sought to discount Rock’s allegations. Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera criticized Rock’s diplomatic skills. “A responsible member of the international community would not have made such unfounded public statements in such an irresponsible manner,” he said. “Even if they were true, a person of that nature should have had the decency to bring it to the notice of the government discreetly.” The state-owned Daily News newspaper stated in an editorial: “The UN representative needs to take stock of the adverse repercussions his groundless allegations could have on Sri Lanka’s national interest.”

The Sri Lankan military denied any connection to the Karuna group and in a statement said Rock’s allegations were “completely misleading” and “deserve a deep sense of revulsion and explanation in view of their serious nature and repercussions.” The most scathing denunciation came from the Media Centre for National Security, a website run by the media wing of the Sri Lankan armed forces.

In an article entitled “Who is this Rock?,” the military website accused the UN official, a former Canadian government minister, of taking money from a pro-LTTE community in Canada during his political campaign and then blocking the Canadian government from banning the LTTE. “However, with the help and support from the Tamil community living in Canada and certain LTTE sympathizers Rock managed to secure a position in the UN,” the article said.

Notwithstanding its agreement to work against underage recruitment, the TMVP still denounced Rock for repeating “fictitious, fallacious and frivolous information” provided by “quislings” in the east.

One of the government’s complaints against Rock, Sri Lanka’s minister of disaster management and human rights stressed to Human Rights Watch, was that Rock failed to provide evidence to support his claims.On November 27, 2006, Rock sent a letter to President Rajapakse, together with a detailed memo on his findings. In his letter, Rock called on the president to establish a credible, objective and effective investigation of the government’s involvement in the Karuna abductions.

The government’s public expressions of surprise were disingenuous. As documented above, the government knew of Karuna abductions since at least June 2006. Parents of abducted children were reporting their cases to the police, and in some cases to the military. Both failed to take any meaningful steps to get the children back.

On November 28, 2006 Human Rights Watch issued a statement about Karuna abductions based on its mission to Sri Lanka in October, which formed the basis for this report. The statement said that “the Sri Lankan military and police are complicit and, at times, directly cooperating with the Karuna group.”Defense spokesman Kehiliya Rambukwella promptly denied any state involvement with the Karuna group. “Human Rights Watch should give us this credible evidence that they’re talking of. Once we have that, we can pursue it,” he said. “We will certainly take necessary action to control it and completely take the perpetrators to justice.”

The day after Human Rights Watch issued a press release on abductions by the Karuna group, V. Muralitharan, a.k.a. Colonel Karuna, contacted the organization to discuss the allegations. In a telephone interview from an undisclosed location, Karuna denied any involvement in child abductions or forced recruitment. “I do not like these things,” he said. “I don’t like child recruitment and abduction.”

He said the minimum age to join the Karuna group was 20, and that the group would take action against any commander who recruited a person below that age. “We would send him out of the movement,” he said.

His comment contradicted the statement of a TMVP spokesman, who in an interview with a Sri Lankan newspaper did not deny that the Karuna group had children among its ranks. “We don’t abduct children, we enlist only those who offer to join us,” a spokesman in the party’s Chenkalady office said.

Karuna said his forces had a code of conduct. He agreed to share a copy with Human Rights Watch but, as of January 15, 2007, the group had not sent any text.

Regarding contact with the Sri Lankan military, Karuna said the relationship was of a political nature. “We have no military contacts, but we have some political contacts,” he said. When asked to explain how his military supporters operate freely in government-controlled areas, he said: “As far as political cadres are concerned, they have contact with the police, because the police provide protection. The military is working in restricted areas, Karuna areas. We have captured some areas from the LTTE, so we control some areas.”

According to Karuna, the TMVP has 16 political offices throughout Sri Lanka. When asked why families had seen their abducted children in TMVP offices, he replied, “Anybody can come and see our offices. It is very transparent, like an MP’s [Member of Parliament’s] office.” He continued, “Definitely there are no underage children in our political offices. Anyone can come and inspect.” He attributed the reports of abductions by the Karuna group to the LTTE and their supporters. “All these things are propaganda campaigns by the LTTE and the diaspora,” he said.

Regarding Allan Rock, Karuna was adamant that the LTTE was behind Rock’s statements. “The LTTE set up families to make accusations to Allan Rock,” he said. “There was no way for Rock to verify their stories. When Rock was in our office, we explained these things very clearly.”

Five days after the interview with Human Rights Watch, Karuna contacted UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict Radhika Coomaraswamy to discuss child abductions, in particular the inclusion of the Karuna group in the latest report of the Secretary-General to the UN Security Council on children and armed conflict.According to the UN, Karuna denied abducting children and said he would cooperate with UNICEF to guarantee the protection of children. He said he would take the following steps, to be formalized in an action plan between UNICEF and the Karuna group:

1. Re-issue a policy statement to inform all Karuna commanders that using and recruiting children is not an acceptable practice.

2. Train all commanders on children’s rights with assistance from the international community.

3. Release to their families children who may be found among Karuna ranks, in collaboration with nongovernmental organizations and/or UNICEF.

4. Give UNICEF free access to Karuna camps to ensure that no children remain associated with the armed group.

Special Representative Coomaraswamy welcomed Karuna’s statement. “This is a major step forward that will help to prevent children from being used by armed groups in Sri Lanka,” she said. “I hope that this will lead to effective actions on the ground.” The office of the special representative said it hoped to receive a similar commitment from the LTTE granting access to their camps for independent verification.

On January 2, 2007 the TMVP provided UNICEF with what it called “regulations for the military division of Thamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP).” The regulations state that all recruits must be over 18, provide a birth certificate to prove their age, and consent to join the military group. The regulations state that members of the Karuna group who conscript children into the force will be immediately subjected to punishment. Examples specified include cooking in the camp or farming for a period of at least three months.

In contrast, the regulations state that violations such as murder, sexual abuse, and looting will result in the member being removed from the organization and handed over to the police. Violations such as smoking, consuming liquor, and the abuse of women result in expulsion from the organization.

As of January 15, 2007, discussions with UNICEF were ongoing regarding the content of the regulations and implementation of Karuna’s commitments. According to the agency, the Karuna group released six children in November and December, but it also abducted at least 21 others during that time.

To date, abductions of boys and young men in the eastern districts by the Karuna group persist. Although no complete figures are available, local human rights activists and international aid workers report that abductions have continued, both by the Karuna group and the LTTE. According to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, in late November both the LTTE and Karuna group were “under suspicion for assassinations and abductions.”

According to UNICEF, parents and others reported 21 abductions by the Karuna group in November, and another eight in December. The group released four children in November and two in December. The UNICEF statistics do not specify whether any of the November abductions took place after November 13, when the UN made its allegations against the Karuna group and government security forces. According to human rights activists and aid agencies working in the eastern districts, however, some abductions took place in the second half of the month.

According to University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna), Karuna forces abducted three boys in Batticaloa district around December 10. It is not known if these three cases were also reported to UNICEF.

On November 21, Human Rights Watch wrote to President Rajapakse and to the minister for disaster management and human rights to convey the organization’s initial findings on Karuna abductions and government complicity from the research mission in October . The letter welcomed the president’s stated willingness to investigate the allegations of state involvement and asked the president to provide details on how that investigation would be pursued. The letter was resent in early December. As of January 15, 2007, neither the president’s office nor the human rights ministry had replied.

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Human Rights Watch Report - 3
Tigers still conscripting children says Human Rights Watch

By D. B. S. Jeyaraj

[transCurrents.com] While the renegade tiger faction (TMVP)headed by Vinayagamoorthy Muraleetharan alias Karuna is exposed and severely criticised by the New York based organization Human Rights Watch in its latest report the mainstream tigers(LTTE) are also condemned for continuing its abductions and recruitment by force’

The HRW released on January 24th a hundred page report titled “Complicit in Crime: State Collusion in Abductions and Child Recruitment by the Karuna Group”.

The report also has a section outlining how the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are continuing with child abductions and recruitment. The HRW also notes that Karuna the former eastern tiger commander was responsible for much conscription when in the LTTE.

Paragraphs focussing on the current LTTE role in abductions and recruitment are re-produced below -

“The LTTE has recruited and used children as soldiers throughout the two-decade-long civil war in Sri Lanka. Prior to the 2002 ceasefire agreement, the LTTE routinely used children in combat, including for mass attacks during major battles.Children often suffered high rates of casualties.

The LTTE used child soldiers in all capacities, including as infantry soldiers, security and intelligence officers, medics, combat and administrative support, and as trainers for other cadres. The LTTE also used children as suicide bombers, including girls, who may be less likely to undergo rigorous searches at government checkpoints. The LTTE gave cyanide capsules and grenades to its soldiers, including children, with instructions to ingest the capsule or blow themselves up rather than allow themselves to be captured by the Sri Lankan security forces.

The LTTE carried out vigorous campaigns in Tamil communities in LTTE-dominated areas to promote their cause, often designed to attract children as new recruits. These campaigns included special events honoring LTTE heroes, parades of LTTE cadres, public displays of war paraphernalia, and street theater. In schools, LTTE cadres often gave speeches and showed videos, and gave teachers “history” lessons on the LTTE to administer to their students. Many children were attracted to the perceived status or glamour of serving as an LTTE cadre, or were persuaded that it was their duty to join the nationalist struggle as part of the LTTE.

Children from a disadvantaged background were particularly vulnerable to LTTE recruitment. Children who were orphaned, were from poor or abusive families, or who had little access to educational or vocational opportunities often believed that joining the LTTE offered a positive alternative to their circumstances.

Government abuses also fueled children’s participation in the LTTE. During the conflict, many Tamil children in the north and east were directly affected by abuses carried out by government security forces, including torture, interrogation, unlawful detention, execution, rape, and enforced disappearances. A 1993 study of adolescents in Vaddukoddai in the north found that one-quarter of the children studied had witnessed violence personally, often against members of their own family.In response, many children joined the LTTE, seeking to protect their families and community, or to avenge past abuses.

The LTTE also used coercion and force to recruit children into their ranks. LTTE recruiters abducted children on their way home from school or from their homes. Particularly in the east, the LTTE enforced a “one family, one child” policy, informing Tamil households that each family was obliged to provide a son or a daughter for “the cause.”

The LTTE’s recruitment and use of child soldiers continued even after the ceasefire was signed in 2002. In 2004 Human Rights Watch conducted an investigation of child recruitment, particularly in the districts of Batticaloa and Trincomalee. We found that the LTTE routinely visited Tamil homes to inform parents that they must provide a child for the “movement.”

Families that resisted were harassed and threatened. Parents were told that if they did not comply their child would be taken by force, other children in the household or their parents would be taken in their stead, or the family would be forced to leave their home. In numerous cases, after a family refused to voluntarily hand over a son or daughter, a child was abducted from their home at night, or picked up by LTTE cadres while walking to school or attending a temple festival.

The LTTE typically targeted children of 14 to 16 years of age for recruitment, but in some cases it took children as young as 11 or 12. Girls were recruited in large numbers, and make up an estimated 40 percent of the LTTE’s child recruits.

Former child soldiers told Human Rights Watch that after recruitment the LTTE allowed them no contact with their families. During military training they learned to handle weapons, including landmines and bombs, and were taught military tactics. Children who made mistakes were frequently beaten. Children who tried to run away were often beaten in front of their entire unit, in order to dissuade other children who might be tempted to escape.

Many of the former child soldiers interviewed by Human Rights Watch in 2004 were recruited by V. Muralitharan (Colonel Karuna), while he served as the LTTE’s eastern commander. Karuna had several thousand cadres under his command, including some 2,000 children, when he broke off from the LTTE in March 2004. After the LTTE attacked and quickly defeated Karuna’s forces in April 2004, child soldiers serving under Karuna fled or were encouraged by their commanders to return to their families. UNICEF subsequently recorded 1,825 cases of children who returned home that month in Batticaloa.

Within weeks of the split, the LTTE began to systematically target many of Karuna’s former child soldiers for re-recruitment. LTTE members, often armed and in uniform, went from village to village, visiting former soldiers’ homes and organizing village meetings to insist that former soldiers report back to the LTTE. They used motor vehicles to make public announcements and sent letters to demand the registration or re-enlistment of former cadres. The LTTE threatened families that they would take children by force if they did not return. Parents told Human Rights Watch that the LTTE came to their homes at night to abduct their children, and that they were beaten if they tried to resist. By the end of 2004 more than 250 children had been re-recruited, often by force. Many others lived in constant anxiety, sometimes refusing to leave their homes or go to school for fear of LTTE abduction.

UNICEF began efforts to document child recruitment by the LTTE in 2002, encouraging families to report cases, and establishing a database to maintain comprehensive records. From January 2002 through December 31, 2006, UNICEF staff received 5,956 reported cases of child recruitment by the LTTE. Of these, 1,012 (17 percent) were children under the age of 15. The recruitment and use of children under the age of 15 is considered a war crime..

The majority of children recruited by the LTTE are never reported, as many families are fearful of reprisals by the LTTE if they make a complaint, may not be able to reach a UNICEF office, or may be unaware of the possibility of reporting. UNICEF found that of children who were released or flee from the LTTE, only 37 percent were previously entered into their database.

The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), which is responsible for monitoring the 2002 ceasefire agreement, has also received numerous reports of child recruitment by the LTTE. Between February 22, 2002, and December 31, 2006, the SLMM had ruled 1,743 cases of child recruitment by the LTTE as ceasefire violations. These cases made up more than 45 percent of all ceasefire violations reported to the SLMM.

The LTTE has made numerous public commitments to end its recruitment and use of child soldiers, including pledges to the UN special representative to the secretary-general on children and armed conflict in 1998, and UNICEF officials in 2001 and 2003. None of these pledges were honored.

In 2003 the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government agreed upon an action plan for children affected by the conflict. A key provision of the plan was the LTTE’s agreement to end child recruitment and to release children from its forces. UNICEF, the main implementing partner for the plan, agreed to establish three transit centers to facilitate the return of children to their communities, particularly in cases where the child expressed a reluctance to go home, had special protection needs, or where his or her family was difficult to locate.

The first transit center opened in October 2003, but in its first year of operation received a total of only 172 children from the LTTE. Although the center had the capacity for 100 children it never held more than 49, and at times was completely empty. In 2005 UNICEF closed the facility as a transit center, and converted it for other use. The other two centers were built, but never used as transit centers, due to the low number of children released.

From 2002 throughout 2006 the LTTE released an additional 1,595 children who did not go through the transit centers but returned directly home. During the same period, however, the LTTE recruited at least four times as many new children into its ranks.

In October 2006 the LTTE’s Tamil Eelam Justice Division announced a new Child Protection Act, to come into effect by January 1, 2007. The new law sets 17 as the minimum age of recruitment into the LTTE, and stipulates that children under 18 will not participate in armed combat.

In a communication to Human Rights Watch, SP Tamilsevlan, the head of the LTTE political division, stated that the LTTE’s Child Protection Authority had been strengthened in order to monitor the implementation of the law. A document submitted to Human Rights Watch by Tamilselvan claims that field officers have been given written instructions on procedures to prevent underage recruitment, that all new recruits into the LTTE are screened at least twice, and that any recruits found to be underage are sent home.

The LTTE claims that 197 underage children were released by the LTTE between June and November 2006. It states that an additional 115 children who were recruited during 2006 and are still under the age of 17 remain with the LTTE. Contrary to international standards, the LTTE does not acknowledge that children of age 17 should not be recruited, and takes the position that even if recruited below age 17, once children have turned 17 they no longer need to be released.

Between 2002 and 2006, reported rates of LTTE child recruitment dropped by approximately 60 percent, possibly due to sustained international pressure by other governments, the United Nations, and non-governmental organizations. The LTTE continued to recruit children, however, and as hostilities escalated in late 2005 some parents informed international organizations that the LTTE had threatened them that the LTTE would not provide them with security when war broke out unless they provided a child. During 2006 UNICEF continued to record approximately 50 child recruitment cases a month attributed to the LTTE–nearly five times the number of children released by the LTTE during the same period.

As hostilities escalated in late 2005 and 2006, the number of parents who reported child recruitment cases to UNICEF may have fallen even lower than previously, due to increased insecurity and additional pressures not to report. Some parents, for example, reportedly have been told by the LTTE that “if you report to the internationals you will only see the body of your child.”

Risks to children in the LTTE’s ranks also escalated as major military operations between the LTTE and government resumed. Children became increasingly vulnerable to injury, disability, and death from Sri Lankan army attacks against LTTE bases, and as they were deployed into military operations against governments targets.

Of the total number of LTTE child recruitment cases documented by UNICEF, 1,685 (including 683 who are still under age 18) remain unaccounted for and are believed to be serving with the LTTE. Due to underreporting, the true total of children in the LTTE’s ranks may exceed 4,000.”

Feedback :Contact DBS Jeyaraj : djeyaraj2005@yahoo.com

Human Rights Watch Report - 4
Child Soldiers: Sorrowful stories of grieving family members

By D.B.S. Jeyaraj

[transCurrents.com] The 100 page report released by Human Rights Watch on January 24th is titled ” Complicit in Crime: State Collusion in Abductions and Child Recruitment by the Karuna Group”. A tragic yet powerful component of the HRW report is the vivid accounts provided by family members and other witnesses about how these unfortunate children were abducted and recruited through force.

In an environment where guilty parties engage in propaganda and counter - propaganda to absolve themselves of blame the truthful tales related in the report have a ring of authenticity which is hard to discount or disprove.

Above all these flesh and blood stories provide an insight into this on going human tragedy that is tearing the beleaguered Tamil polity asunder.

In a land where parents regard children as their greatest blessing and sacrifice greatly for the well - being of their off - spring it must be cruel agony indeed to see their sons and daughters being snatched away by heartless martial zombies. Children cannot be sacrificed on the altar of politico - military requirements. Let us hope that the self - evident truth in the following stories will melt our hearts and trouble our conscience.

Given below are several accounts provided to Human Rights Watch from parents and witnesses of abductions attributed to the Karuna group in 2006. Certain specific information concerning these cases, such as names, places, and dates, has been removed due to security concerns.

Case 1 — Boy and Young Man in Batticaloa District, May

In May 2006 Karuna forces abducted a boy and a young man from a village in Batticaloa district. Both were subsequently seen by their families in the custody of the Karuna group.

The mother of the young man told Human Rights Watch that her son might have been targeted because the LTTE had abducted another of her sons in 2001. She explained how the May 2006 abduction took place:

Around 8 p.m. my son was having dinner behind the house in our backyard with me and my daughter. A few people entered the compound and surrounded us. Two men went directly to the main yard while two men turned around the house and went to the backyard where we were eating. They took my son. More people were waiting outside our compound. I think they were a total of 10. They all wore Sri Lankan army uniforms and were masked. There were no ranks or insignia visible on their uniforms. I grabbed the leg of one of the assailants and I begged him not to take my son away. He kicked me violently. One of them said, “We are investigating your son and once cleared we will release him.” They said that in Tamil. They were all armed with rifles. I don’t know what kind. They belonged to the Karuna group.

They didn’t come on vehicle. They walked in and left the same way. We followed them for a while but at some point they turned right onto a smaller lane and we stopped.

According to the mother, she begged the Karuna group members not to take her son. “You gave a son to the LTTE, so you have to give a son to us,” she said one of the men replied.

The family reported the abduction at the police station in Valaichchenai. A police officer opened a file and took a few notes, the mother said. He asked a few questions and provided the family with the complaint number. One month later, the family received the police report, which was inspected by Human Rights Watch. According to the family, however, the police have done nothing since.

After the abduction, the family went three or four times to the TMVP office in Karapola in the Welikanda area. On the final visit, officials in the office agreed to set up a meeting in two weeks for the parents to see their son.

About two weeks later, the parents were allowed to see their son in what the mother called “a special house where parents can meet their abducted children.” She explained,

The Karunas took us to a house in Karapola where we saw our son…. My son told us, “I am not allowed to leave. I have to stay.” He was wearing a Sri Lankan army uniform and he had a weapon. He added, “I can’t escape from here.” We stayed three hours with him, from noon to 3 p.m.

The family saw their son two more times after that when he came home for a visit together with the Karuna group members who had abducted him. They were all armed and wearing Sri Lankan army uniforms, the mother said. Her son seemed changed:

My son was another person. His behavior had changed. His way of speaking was different too. He talked a lot about politics. At some point, he was alone with me and I suddenly retrieved my boy. He sounded normal without the other guys around.

Human Rights Watch also interviewed the mother of the boy who was abducted from the same village that day, although she did not witness the abduction. “It was night around 9 p.m.,” she said. “I was home, I didn’t hear anything. Then I heard noise and people crying.”

The mother said she also reported the case to the Valaichchenai police, where the police opened a file but did not provide the complaint number. “The police didn’t ask any questions, didn’t ask for a description of my son or for a photo,” she said.

The boy’s mother went with other families of abducted boys and young men from the area to the TMVP office in Karopola, where she saw her abducted son. The office is within eyesight of an army base and police station, she said.

After that, her son visited her at home on two occasions. He wore plain clothes but was armed both times, she said. “He had changed, he was not the same,” she explained. “He said he was supporting Karuna now. But he told me that he would come home if he could.”

Case 2 — Eight Boys and Young Men in Batticaloa District, June

In June Karuna forces abducted eight boys and young men from a village in the Batticaloa district. Human Rights Watch interviewed four of the families with a son abducted that day. They gave consistent testimony about the abductions and the parents’ efforts to get their children back, including visits to Karuna camps. According to three of the families, Sri Lankan army soldiers had come to the village on the morning of the abductions, gathering and photographing seven boys and young men, four of whom were later abducted by the Karuna group. Whether the Sri Lankan military was directly cooperating with the Karuna group by identifying potential abductees or was conducting regular operations to identify LTTE members or supporters remains unclear.

The mother of one of the abducted young men explained how Sri Lankan army soldiers came to the village around 10 a.m., gathered a group of boys and young men in a nearby field, and took their photographs:

They rounded up our children, took them to a field a few yards away, kept them there and took pictures of the kids. They also asked for the IDs of the kids. There were a lot of soldiers surrounding the whole area. They came on army trucks. They came house to house and took our children only, not the parents. Then they took them to the field nearby. I was afraid that they were in the process of apprehending the kids. Seven kids were taken to the field by the soldiers. Four of these seven kids were kidnapped [by Karuna forces] that same night. The soldiers just said, “We want to take photos of the kids and then they will be allowed to go.” They asked for the IDs. They ordered the parents not to come. A soldier said, “We are going to take the photos to protect your kids. Karunas won’t kidnap your children now.” They had a small camera. There were many soldiers. I can’t say how many, maybe 200. Then the kids were abducted the same night.

According to the young man’s father, Karuna forces arrived in the village around 11 p.m. that night. They were wearing Sri Lankan army uniforms and had black masks. They spoke Tamil and he knew they belonged to the Karuna group because he later visited his abducted son in a Karuna camp. He explained,

I saw everything, I was there. I tried to stop it from happening but the kidnappers said they would shoot me. My son was crying. My wife tried to stop them too but they pushed her back.

The parents of the abducted boys and young men made several trips to visit their sons in Karuna camps in the Welikanda area, the mother and father said. To get there they took a bus to the Sewanpitiya junction with the main A11 road, where there is a checkpoint with army and police. The visiting parents had to give their names to the soldiers posted there, who informed the Karuna group that the parents were on their way. Then they took trishaws (motorcycle taxis) for two or three miles to the Karuna camp. Karuna forces speaking Tamil and wearing green Sri Lanka army uniforms were in the area, they said.

According to the mother, she saw her son on the third trip. He was at a different camp from the seven other boys and young men with whom he had been abducted. “We informed the guards at the gate and we waited an hour at the entrance, but inside the camp, in a place near the jungle,” she said. “My son was wearing a Sri Lankan army uniform and he had a weapon. He cried when he saw me.”

Two days after the abduction, the father went to the Eravur police station to report the case. The police opened a file, he said, but they refused to provide a complaint number. “When Karunas capture your children, you come here to complain, but when the LTTE capture them, you never come,” the father said a police officer remarked.

The mother of a boy abducted that day, interviewed separately, gave a similar account of the day’s events, from the visit of the Sri Lankan army to the Karuna abductions that night:

The night of the abduction, we were sitting behind the house when suddenly around 1 a.m. armed guys wearing Sri Lankan army uniforms showed up. We were surrounded by seven or eight armed men. I don’t know how they came, I didn’t hear anything.

The same day, but in the morning at 10 a.m., the army came, surrounded the area, and took our kids to a field just near the house on the other side of the path. They took my son to the field. They had come on vehicles. They asked the kids to come with their IDs. The soldiers were speaking broken Tamil. They said, “No parents, only boys.” They took seven boys to the field and took their pictures. That same night, four of these seven kids were kidnapped. There were 20 army soldiers. I am pretty sure of the number. They came in one car and one tractor. They freed the kids and left.

The guys who showed up the same night wore the same uniforms as the soldiers in the morning but they were masked and they spoke perfect Tamil. There were seven or eight and they were armed. We tried to stop them from taking the kids but they pushed us back and kicked us. My son was crying. Eight kids from the area were abducted that night.

Shortly thereafter, the families of the abducted boys and young men went to the Eravur police station, the mother said. She was not present in the police station, but her husband explained to her what took place:

One police officer said that he knew about the abduction. The police asked for the names of those responsible. My husband said he didn’t know the names but he knew they were Karunas. He recognized some of them. My husband knows this area very well. When the LTTE was here he performed some work for them. He knows the guys who were with the LTTE at the time and who are with the Karunas now. The police didn’t give the complaint number and they have done nothing since.

The mother was among the group of parents who subsequently visited their sons in the Karuna camps. “I went there and I saw my son three times,” she said. “He was armed and was wearing a Sri Lankan army uniform.”

According to the mother, the first time she saw her son was in the Karopola camp near Welikanda. To get there, the parents took a bus to a road junction near Welikanda but she did not remember the name. A Sri Lankan army checkpoint is at the junction she said, and the leader of the families’ group gave the soldiers the names of the boys and young men with whom they wanted to visit. The army let the parents pass and they took trishaws to the camp. For the second visit, this mother’s son was at what she called the Theevuchenai camp, near Welikanda.

“He was very sad when I saw him,” the mother said. “He had lost weight.” He told her that he receives a monthly salary that he will send home. The family received two postal orders from their son worth 5,000 rupees (US$46).

The father of another young man abducted that day also corroborated the testimony of the other families, and provided additional details about visits to the Karuna camp.

Between 25 and 30 men from the Karuna group in Sri Lankan army uniforms surrounded the area where his family lives around 10 p.m., he said. They were not masked but were wearing black bandanas, and they were armed with rifles, which the father identified as either T 56 or AK 47 assault rifles. One or two of the men had submachine guns, he said. All of them spoke Tamil.

The men rounded up eight boys and young men and took them towards the main road. The father followed them to the road, where one of the Karuna group members told him that the boys were under suspicion of helping the LTTE and therefore under investigation. They would be returned soon, he said. They walked away with the eight boys.

Shortly after the abduction, the father reported the crime at the police station in nearby Eravur. The police took notes and opened a file, the father said, but they refused to provide the family with the complaint number.

Six weeks later, the family heard a rumor that their abducted son was in a Karuna camp in Karopola, near Welikanda. The father called a friend who lived in that area, asking that person to inquire. Three days later the friend called back to say the man’s son was there. The father described for Human Rights Watch how he and members of the other families with abducted children went looking for their sons:

We took a bus to Sewanpitiya and then once there a trishaw to Karapola. First there is an army camp and then the Karuna camp. It’s a government-controlled area. The trishaw driver knew the place perfectly. It is located three miles from Sewanpitiya and it cost us 30 rupees per person.

He continued,

We went to the gate. There were Karuna guys at the gate, some in uniform and some in plain clothes. One of them said, “What are you doing here? Why did you come?” I replied, “I want to see my son.” “Wait, wait,” they said and brought two chairs. They then brought food and water. We waited from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m. We then entered the camp. There were people in plainclothes inside. We were not far from the gate of the camp and they brought our children.

My son was wearing a Sri Lankan army uniform. He had a gun and a rocket propelled grenade launcher. The seven other boys were like my son, wearing an army uniform and armed. My son told me he was all right there and that I should not worry. I was not alone with my son. Karuna people were all around us. He looked very sad. The meeting lasted for two hours.

The father visited his son twice after that. During the first visit, he saw that his son had been wounded. “His ear and his leg were black,” the father said. “He said that a mine had exploded near him during a fight and that his friend next to him had been killed and he had been wounded.” The young man’s mother tried to visit twice but the Karuna group members at the camp said her son was not there.

According to the father, he and the parents of four other abductees received 5,000 rupees each from their sons by postal order.

The family recognized the men who abducted their son but did not know their names. “They were with the LTTE before,” the young man’s mother said.

The mother and father said this was the second time a son had been abducted by an armed group, the LTTE having captured an older son two years before. The son abducted in June 2006 had also been abducted by the LTTE in 2005, the father said

Case 3 — Thirteen Boys and Young Men in Batticaloa District, June

In June Karuna forces abducted 13 boys and young men from a village in the Batticaloa district. Human Rights Watch spoke separately with four families who had sons abducted that day. They gave consistent testimony on how between 10 and 15 Karuna group members, armed and mostly in Sri Lankan army uniforms, detained the boys and young men in a nearby shop, ostensibly for “investigation.” The shop was across the street from an army post and some of the parents pleaded with the soldiers to intervene. Several soldiers spoke with the Karuna group members but the soldiers took no effective action to stop the abduction from taking place. Many of the family members subsequently visited their abducted children in a Karuna camp.

According to the father of a boy abducted that day, the incident began around 9 a.m., when four armed Karuna group members came to his home. He explained,

They said there was a meeting and they asked my son to come. He went with them. The four men who came to our house wore Sri Lankan army uniforms and had caps on their heads but were not masked. They were armed with rifles. They spoke Tamil. They belong to the Karuna group. My son refused to go and they took him by force. My son is a student, grade 9. I tried to go with them, to follow them but they didn’t let me do that. They said that the parents could not come and they pushed me back.

There were a lot of these same guys that day in the village. We later heard that many kids in the village had been abducted that day. If we had known, we would have hidden him somewhere.

The man’s wife went to the Valaichchenai police station to report the crime. The police opened a file, the father said, but they did not ask for a photograph or any identification for his son. “They did ask how tall he was, his hair color, what he was wearing,” he said. “They didn’t give us the complaint number. They haven’t done anything since. They didn’t even bother to come here to investigate.”

A few days later, the boy’s parents heard that the Karuna group was holding their son in a camp in Mutugalla near Welikanda. The father went there a few days after the abduction. He explained,

The Karuna camp is located near a Sri Lankan army camp. I took a bus from Valaichchenai to Welikanda and then another bus from Welikanda to Mutugalla. In Welikanda there was an army checkpoint and they checked my ID….The camp is guarded by armed men wearing Sri Lankan army uniforms and speaking Tamil. There is no sign outside.

The first time I couldn’t see my son. I waited outside the camp but I didn’t see him. They didn’t bring him and I went home. One month later, I came back to the same camp in Mutugalla. There is a special place close to the camps to meet those who have been abducted. I waited there a little bit and they brought my son. I saw him. He looked sad. He wore plainclothes and was not armed.

The father made this trip to the camp in Mutugalla three times, he said. He also received two months of salary from his son, totaling 12,000 rupees (US$112). The son gave the money to his father directly when they met.

Human Rights Watch interviewed the family of a young man also abducted that day. His older brother provided consistent testimony on how the Karuna group abducted the 13 boys and held them in the shop, as well as the involvement of Sri Lankan soldiers from a base across the street:

When [my brother] was coming back from fishing that day, he heard that boys had been kidnapped in the village. He went home very fast but he was kidnapped in front of the house on his way home. They were six guys who said that they needed him for an investigation and took him. They were between 25 and 30 years old. They were wearing plainclothes but they were armed. They spoke Tamil. They took my brother to a house nearby. My brother didn’t try to resist. My parents were not home when it happened. I decided to follow my brother and the kidnappers.

The kidnappers took all the kids they captured to the shop on the main road. When I reached the shop, I saw the parents of the other kidnapped kids around. They were looking for their children. Thirteen kids were kidnapped that day and were at the shop. My brother was among them. Then my mother joined me. We asked the kidnappers to release my brother. We stayed with the other parents and every hour the kidnappers said they were going to release my brother. At 5 p.m. they all left the shop and took Alamkulam road. They walked and then a van came and picked them up.

According to the brother, there is a Sri Lankan army camp across the street from the shop where the boys and young men were held, but the soldiers did not take any action to stop the abduction. He told Human Rights Watch,

A few mothers of the abducted kids went to the [Sri Lankan army] camp and asked for the army’s help. Two soldiers finally came out and talked to the Karuna guys in broken Tamil. Then the soldiers told us that the Karunas said they were investigating the boys and that they would soon be released. The soldiers said that the Karunas said the parents could go home now, it was OK. Then the soldiers went back to the camp.

The abducted young man’s mother was one of those who tried to get the soldiers to help. She explained her efforts:

Two soldiers came out and went to Alamkulam Road to talk to the Karuna guys. Then they went back to the camp and told us that we should not worry and that the kids were going to be released. We waited for two more hours and nothing happened. We then went to the police station.

That evening the abducted young man’s father went to the Valaichchenai police station with a group of parents, the brother said. The police opened a file and told the parents that they should not worry because the abductees would soon be free. The police initially refused to provide a copy of the police report but eventually did give it for a fee of 125 rupees (normally the report costs between 10 and 15 rupees, the brother said); only two parents got a copy of the police report. The family said the police have done nothing on the case since.

Two months after the abduction, the family visited the abducted young man in a Karuna camp in Mutugalla. They visited him four times in total, the brother said.

The mother of the young man claimed that she knew two men from the Karuna group responsible for the abductions that day. She told Human Rights Watch,

I know who planned the kidnapping of the kids. Their names are [names withheld]. They are from here. [One of the men] was even here during the kidnapping, I saw him. I saw only nine or ten of the Karunas that day, but they were more than that, maybe 13. They wore t-shirts and pants and were armed. [The two men] come back here regularly. I talked to them and pleaded for my son. They refused to release him.

Human Rights Watch interviewed the mother of another young man abducted that day. The mother has three sons, and one of them had previously volunteered to join the LTTE, which may have been why her second-oldest son was targeted for abduction by the Karuna group. She told Human Rights Watch what she saw on the day of the abductions, including her interaction with the Sri Lankan army:

The day of the abduction, I was fishing. I am the only breadwinner for my family. When I came back to the village, many villagers were out shouting and crying. Several children of the village had been abducted by Karuna’s guys….

I joined the other parents [at the shop] and we stayed there until 2 p.m. While there, I saw my son and I pleaded for his release. I implored the Karunas to free him. They replied they were going to investigate our kids and that they would be released after that. Thirteen boys had been abducted that day in the village and I saw them all at the shop.

At 5 p.m., Karuna guys took our kids to Alamkulam Road. A van came and picked up the boys on Alamkulam Road. A white van with tainted windows….

At some point, four Sri Lankan army soldiers came and talked to the Karunas. The soldiers then talked to us near the shop and said that the Karunas were going to investigate our children. They added: “Don’t worry, the Karunas will release your kids after that.”

According to the mother, she went to the Welikanda area the next day to look for her son:

We went to the Karuna camp [at Mutugalla] and we saw the guys who kidnapped our children walking inside the camps. We asked for our children. They replied that they had been sent for training. I saw a few boys who had been abducted but not my son. We waited there until 5 p.m. and we came back here at 9. There is an army camp very close to the Karuna camp there.

Between Sewanpitiya and Mutugalla are a police camp and an army camp, the mother said. Near the army camp is what she called a TMVP camp. While the parents were waiting, soldiers came out to inquire what was going on. She said,

The first time we went to the camp in Mutugalla, two Sri Lankan army soldiers came from the army camp within 30 minutes and asked the Karuna guys what the mothers were doing there. The Karuna guys replied that we came to visit our children. The two soldiers asked us questions and asked what happened. They were speaking Sinhala and we didn’t understand very well. They spoke in Sinhala with the Karuna members. After they spoke to the soldiers, the Karuna guys asked us to leave the camp and we left.

Two months later, the mother saw her son at the Karuna camp, and she saw him twice more after that, she said. “I want to come home but I can’t escape,” she said he told her. She continued, “The last time I saw him was two weeks ago. He was wearing a uniform, a Sri Lankan army green uniform, as during all my previous visits except one. Many people wore the army uniform in the camp.”

According to the mother, she has received 5,000 rupees on three occasions.

The mother of a boy taken that day said she did not witness the abduction, but she saw the armed men in the village, as well as the van that took them away. “Give me back my son!” she said she yelled at the Karuna group members before they drove away. “Only if you give us your elder son,” she said they replied.

“These Karuna guys are from the area, they know everything about us,” the mother told Human Rights Watch. She added, “Those responsible for the abduction are the Karunas. I know the head of this group, the one who was in charge of kidnapping the 14 kids. His name is [name withheld]. He belongs to Karuna’s group.”

About two months later the mother reported the case to the police in Valaichchenai, who opened a file and provided her with a copy of the document, which Human Rights Watch inspected.

The police investigation led to no results, the mother said, so her husband decided to visit the Karuna camps to find their son. In early October he took a bus to the Sewanpitiya junction on the A11 road. At an army checkpoint there the soldiers asked where he was going. He explained that the Karuna group had abducted his child and they let him pass. The father succeeded to see his son in a Karuna camp, and the mother visited the camp herself on two other occasions.

Case 4 –Two Cousins in Batticaloa District, June

In a joint interview, Human Rights Watch interviewed two sisters who had their sons, both young men, abducted together in June from a village in Batticaloa district. The mother of the younger man said,

My third son was abducted with his cousin, my nephew, around 8 p.m. We were all at home, inside the house listening to the news when three armed men wearing plain clothes came. They spoke Tamil. They ordered all the children out of the house and asked the parents to stay inside, otherwise they would shoot us. They said they were going to investigate the kids and then release them. They took seven children who were present at the time, three of my sons and four of my sister’s who were home. Half an hour later, all the children came back except two, who were missing. We stayed home the rest of the night.

The family went looking for the abducted men at the TMVP office in Mankerni the following day. According to the two mothers, at the office officials admitted that they were holding the young men but they had been transferred elsewhere for training.

Shortly thereafter the family reported the abductions to the police in Valaichchenai. The police opened a file and provided the complaint number. “They didn’t ask for a photo or an ID of the kids,” the mother said. “They asked for their height, weight and description. The police didn’t do anything since.”

About six weeks later, three members of the Karuna group brought the two young men home to visit their families for two hours, the mothers said. “They were wearing Sri Lankan army uniforms and were armed, all of them, the five of them,” the mother said. “At some point our two boys told us that they couldn’t escape because they would shoot them.” The group came back the next morning for another visit of about three hours. “They said they were based in Mutugalla camp,” the mother said.

The two mothers went twice to the Mutugalla camp. The mother of the younger man explained,

There is a Sri Lankan army and a police camp near the Karuna camp in Mutugalla. You have to pass by the army camp to reach the Karuna camp. From Sewanpitiya to Mutugalla, there is a Karuna checkpoint. We were stopped and they asked, in Tamil, where we were going. Some wore Sri Lankan army uniforms and some had plain clothes. Near the Karuna checkpoint there is a Sri Lankan army checkpoint, very close, in eye contact. Inside the camp, there is a kind of kitchen area where we could meet people nearby. The last time I went there was one month ago. I received 5,000 rupees twice from my son while visiting him.

Case 5 — Fourteen Boys and Young Men in Batticaloa District, September

On one day in September 2006 Karuna forces abducted 14 boys and young men from villages north of Batticaloa town. Human Rights Watch visited one village where three children were taken. The mother of the youngest abducted child said she subsequently saw her child and the other two abductees in the TMVP office in Batticaloa.

One teenage boy, a witness to the abductions, explained how a group of four boys were playing in a sandy lot when about 15 men with automatic weapons dressed in black pants and black shirts approached the children and clapped–a sign that the children should come. In fluent Tamil the men told the children that they were needed to deliver some notices. “When we were playing here they called us,” the boy told Human Rights Watch. “They said which of you is going to school. I gave them my name and my school and they said I should leave.”

The mother of the youngest abducted child said she tried to prevent her son from going. “I held him by the hand and they said, ‘Don’t worry, we’ll take him to distribute some notices,’” she said. “I didn’t believe them so I followed. It was in the village. They said, ‘Go away!’” The men spoke fluent Tamil, she said. “They told us they were from the Karuna group.”

An elderly man in the village also saw the group of armed men take the three boys away. “I followed the Karuna guys as they took them away,” he told Human Rights Watch. “They raised their guns at me and shouted, ‘Go away!’ One man said, ‘Take me,’ and they hit him with a rifle butt.”

The parents of the abducted children, as well as some of the parents of the 11other boys and young men abducted from the area that day, tried to get their children back. They reported their cases in the coming days to the International Committee of the Red Cross, SLMM, and UNICEF, and some went searching in Karuna offices and camps.

“I went to the Chenkalady camp of Karuna and they said the boys are in Batticaloa,” the mother of the youngest abducted child said. “I went to the office [of the TMVP in Batticaloa. I saw the children in a trishaw. It was at the bus depot on the main road. I saw them in a trishaw going to Batticaloa.”

The mother was too afraid to approach the children because of the Karuna men in the area, but she went to the TMVP office in Batticaloa two days later. She told Human Rights Watch what she saw:

We saw our children on the top floor of the TMVP office. We were three mothers of children taken from here. The children signaled to us that we should go or they would get hit. When we went the second time they [TMVP officials] told us to go away. “Go to the camp at Sewanpitiya on October 24 after t