Sri Lankan Govt complicit in Karuna group abductions says HRW
January 24th, 2007
Human Rights Watch Report – 1
Sri Lankan Govt complicit in Karuna group abductions says HRW
BY D.B.S. Jeyaraj
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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