US embassy cable - 04COLOMBO127

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 COLOMBO 000127 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR SA, SA/INS, DRL/CRA 
 
PLEASE ALSO PASS TOPEC 
 
E.O. 12958:       DECL:  01-23-14 
TAGS: PGOV, PHUM, PTER, CE, LTTE - Peace Process, Human Rights 
SUBJECT:  UNICEF reports that the Tamil Tigers forcibly 
recruited over 700 children in 2003 
 
Refs:  (A) 03 Colombo 2110 
 
-      (B) 03 Colombo 2094 (All Notal) 
 
(U) Classified by James F. Entwistle, Deputy Chief of 
Mission.  Reasons 1.5 (b,d). 
 
1.  (C) SUMMARY:  UNICEF's Sri Lanka Office has issued a 
report stating that the Tamil Tigers forcibly recruited 
over 700 children in 2003.  With the Tigers showing 
little sign of stopping forcible recruitment, UNICEF has 
again warned that it may have to suspend the child 
transit center program it runs with LTTE cooperation.  A 
pro-LTTE Tamil politician downplayed UNICEF's findings. 
In continuing the odious practice, the Tigers appear to 
have calculated that the need for new recruits outweighs 
the international opprobrium they are earning.  END 
SUMMARY. 
 
2.  (U) UNICEF REPORT:  On January 22, UNICEF issued a 
status report on its "Action Plan for Children Affected 
by War" in Sri Lanka.  (The plan was developed in 
cooperation with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, 
"LTTE," organization in 2003.)  In the report, UNICEF 
asserts that the Tigers forcibly recruited 709 children 
in 2003.  (Children are defined as those under 18.)  At 
the same time, in 2003, over 200 children were either 
released by the Tigers through a recently-established 
UNICEF transit center located in the northern town of 
Kilinochchi, or were reported to have escaped from the 
LTTE.  UNICEF believes that approximately 1,300 children 
currently are being held by the LTTE.  The report also 
states that since the signing of the GSL-LTTE ceasefire 
agreement in February 2002, 1,722 children had been 
recruited by the LTTE, and of that number, 1,252 had 
been subjected to military training.  Some of the 
children have also apparently been funneled into the 
LTTE's political cadre wing.  The average age of 
children recruited by the Tigers was fifteen, according 
to UNICEF, with the youngest case of recruitment in 2003 
reported to be of a ten year old girl. 
 
3.  (C) WARNING THE LTTE:  In discussing the report, Ted 
Chaiban, the head representative of UNICEF in Sri Lanka, 
said in a press briefing that "the LTTE must cease all 
recruitment of children and they must release all child 
soldiers immediately."  In previous discussions with 
Mission personnel, including a meeting last week with 
Staffdel Gilley/McCormick, Chaiban has expressed great 
concern about the continuing reports of child 
recruitment by the Tigers.  He indicated, for example, 
that if the Tigers did not stop forcible recruitment 
UNICEF would have to shut down its transit center in 
Kilinochchi and would not open a transit center in 
Batticaloa in the east that is slated to begin 
operations soon.  (UNICEF's transit center program, 
budgeted at 14.2 million USD, provides a formal 
mechanism for the release and reintegration of child 
soldiers back to their families and into society.) 
Chaiban has also told the Tigers directly that the 
transit center program will be stopped if the Tigers do 
not end child recruitment.   (Note:  UNICEF has been 
involved in trying to end forcible recruitment of 
children in Sri Lanka for years.  In 1998, UN Special 
Representative on Children in Armed Conflict Olara 
Otunnu brokered an agreement with the Tigers in which 
the group vowed to stop the recruitment of children. 
Since that time, the Tigers have assured UNICEF and 
other visitors that they have stopped underage 
recruitment.  Based on these LTTE assertions, UNICEF 
opened its first transit center in Kilinochchi in 
October 2003.) 
 
4.  (C) TAMIL POLITICIAN DEFENDS TIGERS:  When asked 
about the UNICEF report by Pol FSN, Joseph 
Pararajasingham, a MP for the pro-LTTE Tamil National 
Alliance (TNA) from Batticaloa, downplayed its 
importance.  He asserted that much of the claimed 
forcible recruitment had happened in the past and he 
indicated that rogue Tiger commanders were probably to 
blame.  The Tigers were not currently engaging in the 
practice, he averred, and he promised that the group was 
intent on cooperating with UNICEF.  Queried about the 
report of a ten year old girl being recruited, he said 
the LTTE had requested her birth certificate from 
UNICEF.  UNICEF, however, had not provided it to the 
Tigers as of yet.  Without this information, the Tigers 
could not fully investigate the girl's situation, 
Pararajasingham insinuated. 
 
5.  (C) COMMENT:  The Tigers have been busy in a game of 
telling UNICEF and others that it wants to end the 
practice of forcible recruitment.  The LTTE has even 
cooperated to some extent with UNICEF's programs.  At 
the same time, however, the Tigers continue to forcibly 
recruit children.  In continuing the odious practice, 
the Tigers appear to believe that the need for new 
recruits outweighs the international opprobrium they are 
earning.  This apparent calculation lends additional 
credence to the widely held assessment that the Tigers 
continue to use the ongoing ceasefire to mobilize and 
restock their military/political apparatus to the full 
extent possible.  Regarding another claim that is often 
made, we do not believe that some Tiger cadre, operating 
without orders from the center, are doing the forcible 
recruitment of their own volition.  The LTTE is much too 
centralized an organization for that to be the case. 
END COMMENT. 
 
6.  (U) Minimize considered. 
 
LUNSTEAD