A top United Nations agency called on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to release thousands of children trapped in the war zone, including nearly 100 child soldiers recruited by the outfit.
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) representative to Sri Lanka Philippe Duamelle termed the situation in the northeastern region of Sri Lanka as grave and worrying, with thousands of civilians caught in the middle of a ferocious crossfire between government troops and the LTTE guerillas.
"We are very concerned of the situation in Wanni as large numbers of children are trapped in a small area without proper access to shelter and food. The LTTE must realise the situation and I call upon them to release these people.
"(We) are concerned with children in LTTE's ranking and they should not recruit them to fight. There are still 93 pending cases of children under 18 years-old, recruited by LTTE," Duamelle told reporters here today.
The Sri Lankan army is carrying out a major military offensive in the eastern region to wipe out remaining LTTE fighters and end a 30-year-old war that has killed nearly 60,000 people and rattled the entire region's security.
CHILD-SOLDIERS 2 (LAST) COLOMBO
The Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP), a breakaway faction headed by Vinayagamoorthy Muralidaran @ Karuna Amman, a former confidant of LTTE chief V. Prabhakaran, also has 53 child soldiers under its wing.
However, TMVP which had abandoned its military campaign, had signed an agreement last December with the Sri Lankan government and UNICEF to release all children under its control.
"I have handed over 14 under aged cadres yesterday and will hand over another 20 cadres within two weeks. Those days we recruited them for security purposes but now we don't need them anymore.
"(Our) senior leaders have entered the political process and we want to start the rehabilitation process for these children. They can join the force (military) or go abroad to work," said Karuna.
The government and UNICEF had jointly set up a special office in Batticaloa to handle the rehabilitation process of former child soldiers and help them reintegrate into society.
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