US embassy cable - 05COLOMBO451

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 COLOMBO 000451 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR SA/INS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM, PTER, CE, UNICEF, LTTE - Peace Process 
SUBJECT: SRI LANKA:  TIGERS TRY TO DOWNPLAY, DENY CHARGES 
OF CHILD RECRUITMENT 
 
REF: COLOMBO 324 
 
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SUMMARY 
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1.  (SBU)  Over the past week the local media have given 
broad coverage to reports of the February 23 UN Security 
Council session on child soldiers, highlighting in particular 
the reported recommendation by the Secretary-General's 
Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict that 
the Council consider sanctions against offending parties. 
Locally the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which 
was said to have been specifically cited in the UN report, 
let the story pass without public comment.  The Sri Lankan 
media, however, reported that the LTTE has written to the 
Special Representative in New York proposing to engage in 
"dialogue" with the UN--but not, apparently, with UNICEF, 
which already has an agreement with the Tigers to end the 
recruitment of child soldiers.  Embassy would appreciate the 
views of the Department and USUN about whether the UN 
Security Council will seriously consider sanctions against 
the LTTE for failure to comply with its pre-existing 
commitment to stop recruiting child soldiers.  End summary. 
 
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INTERNATIONAL SPOTLIGHT ON TIGER RECRUITMENT OF KIDS 
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2.  (U) Over the past week the local English, Sinhala and (to 
a much more limited degree) Tamil media have given broad 
coverage to the February 23 UN Security Council session on 
child soldiers.  In particular, local media highlighted the 
unfavorable attention garnered by the Liberation Tigers of 
Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in a report submitted to the Council by 
Olara Otunnu, the Secretary-General's Special Representative 
for Children and Armed Conflict, as well as Otunnu's 
suggestion that the Council consider sanctions, including 
travel bans, against offending parties.  According to local 
reports, the UN Security Council will consider a proposal 
from the UN Secretary General for "a monitoring and reporting 
mechanism" on the recruitment of child soldiers.  In 
addition, the state-owned press reported on February 26 that 
a recent EU press release had specifically condemned the 
LTTE's practice of recruiting child soldiers. 
 
3.  (U)  The LTTE did not respond locally to Otunnu's report 
or to news of the Security Council session, although the 
local press and the UN website reported that the Tigers sent 
Otunnu a letter stating "their readiness to enter into 
dialogue, using the framework of the monitoring and reporting 
mechanism."  Coverage in the local Tamil-language media 
varied, according to the relative degree of ideological 
and/or geographic closeness to the Tigers.  For example, 
TamilNet, the pro-LTTE website, and Uthayan, a pro-LTTE 
newspaper in Jaffna, did not allude to the Security Council 
session at all.  Sudar Oli, a pro-LTTE Tamil vernacula 
newspaper, carried only a statement from staff at Eastern 
University in Batticaloa District repudiating the UN Special 
Representative's report and depicting the LTTE as the 
defender of Tamil orphans.  (The Trincomalee District School 
Principals' Association issued a similar rebuttal.)  On the 
other hand, independent Tamil daily Virakesari (with the 
largest cirulation islandwide) and the government-owned 
Thinakaran published excerpts of Otunnu's report, while 
Thinakkural, another independent vernacular newspaper, quoted 
LTTE Jaffna District Political Wing Leader Ilampirithy's 
denial of the practice--but without specific reference to the 
report. 
 
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UNICEF:  NO MORE "MECHANISMS" 
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4.  (SBU) Despite the Tigers' absence of public comment, 
colleagues in the diplomatic community in contact with the 
LTTE indicated to us that the negative scrutiny has the 
Tigers worried.  An Embassy contact in Batticaloa has also 
reported to us that the LTTE has been making the rounds 
recently in the east warning religious activists not to 
publicize LTTE human rights violations, including child 
recruitment, to INGOs and the international community.  Ted 
Chaiban, UNICEF's ResRep in Sri Lanka,told the Ambassador 
that he believed the UN should reject the LTTE offer for 
dialogue related to an additional and as-yet unformed 
"monitoring and reporting mechanism," since such a mechanism 
is already provided for--and is routinely flouted by the 
LTTE--in the Action Plan for Children (Reftel). 
 
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COMMENT AND ACTION REQUEST 
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5.  (SBU) This unfavorable publicity comes at an unwelcome 
juncture for the LTTE--just as they are attempting to portray 
themselves to Tamils at home and abroad as the beneficent and 
humanitarian guardians of tsunami victims in the north and 
east.  The Tigers have been hoping that their post-tsunami 
relief efforts would earn them much-desired respectability 
and legitimacy with the UN and other INGOs.  In this context, 
Otunnu's report is like the proverbial skunk at the family 
reunion, and the Tigers' local silence on the issue is not 
surprising.  The LTTE offer to engage the UN in New York in 
"dialogue" is a obvious diversionary tactic; there are plenty 
of opportunities for the Tigers to engage with UNICEF here in 
Sri Lanka by fulfilling their existing commitments under the 
Action Plan for Children.  Action Request:  Embassy would 
appreciate Department's and USUN's views on the likelihood of 
sanctions, reportedly suggested by the Special Representative 
in his report, being taken up by the UN Security Council. 
 
 
 
LUNSTEAD