SRI LANKA: UNICEF Calls for Week-long Ceasefire

By Feizal Samath Reprint | | Print |

Feizal Samath

COLOMBO, May 4 1998 (IPS) - The U.N children’s agency, UNICEF, has called for a week-long ceasefire in Sri Lanka to enable a visiting U.N special envoy to meet with children in the war zone.

“Yes we have made a request to both the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) guerrillas for days of tranquillity to facilitate Mr Olara Otunnu’s visit,” a UNICEF spokesperson told IPS.

She added that while the LTTE has agreed to a temporary halt in hostilities, the government was still to respond. The military spokesman in Colombo, Brig. Sarath Munasinghe, said he was unaware of the request, but acknowledged that the rebels had, on their clandestine radio, announced a ceasefire during UNICEF special representative Otunnu’s visit.

The government will in all likelihood accept the request for “days of tranquillity”, which is made by the UNICEF when it wants to conduct special programmes. On three successive occasions, between 1995 and 1997, UNICEF had got both sides to stop fighting long enough for the implementation of a polio immunisation programme in the conflict areas.

Otunnu, U.N special representative of the secretary general on Children and Armed Conflict, arrived in Colombo on Sunday on a week-long tour to familiarise himself with the effect of the long-running ethnic conflict on children.

Tamil rebels have been fighting since 1983 for a separate homeland in the north and east for the island’s minority Tamils. More than 50,000 people, including combatants from both sides, have been killed in the fighting.

The war has also claimed the lives of children, many of whom were child soldiers or civilians caught in the crossfire that has maimed thousands and uprooted many more. UNICEF has been particularly concerned about the effect of war on children.

Last year, Grace Machel, the former first lady of Mozambique, submitted to the U.N an extensive global study on the use of children in armed conflict in 30 countries. Pleading for an end to the violence unleashed on children, she urged, among many other recommendations, that the age of military recruitment be raised to 18 and said that all child recruits – whether government or non-government – must be demobilised.

Following the release of the report, the U.N last August appointed Otunnu as a ‘special representative’ to work for children caught in conflict situations.

During his Sri Lanka visit, the special representative is scheduled to meet with representatives of the Tamil Tiger rebels, known also by their acronym LTTE, to discuss the issue of child soldiers. “Given the standing of the U.N envoy, we expect someone very important from the rebels to meet him,” she said.

It is well-known that the Tigers conscript and train children to fight against Sri Lankan government forces, though the rebels officially deny the existence of children in their ranks. Sri Lankan government soldiers are all over 18 years of age.

Privately, however, the rebels have confessed to recruiting children but argue that they don’t have a choice. “When more and more adults die and there are no more to be recruited, what do we do? We are fighting a liberation struggle, you know,” one rebel leader was quoted as telling an aid worker.

Otunnu’s meeting with the rebels will take place when he visits the Vanni region in the north, where the heaviest fighting in the 15 year conflict has taken place in the past year. There are thousands of refugees also in the Vanni, staying in camps and temporary shelters, including many child victims of the war.

Otunnu has been appointed as an advocate for children in conflict areas, promoting measures for their protection in times of conflict and for their healing and reintegration in the aftermath of the conflict.

During his week long visit, he will also review the progress made in implementing the recommendations made in Grace Machel’s 1996 report. The UNICEF spokesperson said that most of the issues raised in that report have been tackled by Sri Lanka, which has incorporated her recommendations in ongoing projects.

“Except for the issue of child soldiers, most of the other matters are or have been pursued under our projects,” she said. UNICEF has also repeatedly urged combatants to stop recruiting children into the war.

A recent study by a Sri Lankan paediatrician who interviewed 19 rebel child soldiers, found the majority had volunteered for recruitment. “An important reason given by seven of them was fear of abduction by the ‘enemy’. Others joined for revenge, or for the thrill of being a freedom fighter, while three had joined

for economic reasons,” stated Prof. Harendra de Silva.

He also found that some of the children had tried to run away at least once, or disobeyed orders and been severely punished, or threatened with blackmail and death. “Most had been forced to do very heavy manual work, front-line fighting including killing and setting landmines. They were trained in the use of firearms and methods of self-destruction,” he said.

The recruitment of boys starts as early as eight to 10 years while the girls are enlisted when they are around 10 years. Most children, growing up in the war zone, are scarred by the fighting that has destroyed their childhoods.