People perturbed as Tigers intensify conscription
February 20th, 2007
By D.B.S. Jeyaraj
Many Tamil people living in Northern areas controlled by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are faced with the problem of increased tiger conscription. Intensified forcible recruitment since June last year has resulted in an estimated 10, 000 persons being inducted into the LTTE over the past eight months.
A significant feature of this recruitment drive is that the bulk of those conscripted are over the age of seventeen. This is in striking contrast to earlier practice where thousands of children were forcibly recruited.
Technically what is going on now in the tiger – dominated north is not a child conscription campaign. It is a campaign of abductions and forcible recruitment of the over seventeens. Even those under 18 are deemed children but the LTTE for some reason has lowered it to 17 in its areas. Those aged 17 are not sent to the frontline till they turn 18 claim the LTTE. They are used as helpers in camps till they become 18. Whatever the LTTE may say the universally accepted legal position is that all those under 18 years of age are “children”.
Though International standards decree that all persons recruited under the age of eighteen are child soldiers the LTTE takes up the age of 17 as its standard in recruiting cadres. The LTTE has devised its own Child protection act (CPA) in the areas it administers. The CPA came into force from Jan 1st this year.
Though the LTTE has been avoiding conscription of those under 17 years there have been cases where minors were taken as hostages to pressurise older family members into joining up.
The intensification and acceleration of the LTTE campaign to forcibly recruit those between 17 and 35 into their ranks directly has caused much resentment amid the Tamil people. They have no way to resist or protest. Some have gone into hiding. Others have found ways to leave or escape from those areas. Those detected of trying to escape have been punished. The LTTE has also infiltrated the Govt controlled areas of Mannar , Vavuniya and even Jaffna districts and abducted people. The full force of tiger conscriptions is faced by the people of Kilinochchi and Mullaitheevu districts.
The LTTE which boasts of a parallel administration has set up its monitoring apparatus in the areas it controls. There are two or more LTTE operatives functioning as “grama sevakhas” in each village. They are in possession of all family details in every household in their areas of authority. LTTE operatives armed with such particulars visit each home and “press gang” the reluctant young men and women into joining them. If unsuccessful at day – time the tigers return at night. Nocturnal raids are a regular feature now.
One way of avoiding conscription was to marry since married persons were not forcibly recruited. So many people in tiger controlled areas began marrying early. With the present recruitment drive being launched in June last year the rate of marriages shot up among young people. The LTTE has now declared that all marriages after August 2006 are null and void.
Regardless of marital status the new grooms and brides are being conscripted. The LTTE has also gone to the extent of declaring a moratorium on marriages till a particular age is reached. Males cannot marry till they are 40 and females till 35. This is only a temporary measure assures the LTTE.
A recent incident of suicide illustrates vividly the depths of despair which ordinary civilians are currently undergoing. On January 22nd this year a school master from Uruthirapuram married an employee at the Mallavi hospital. Both were in their mid – twenties.
Two days later on the 24th LTTE operatives came to the newly married couple and insisted that the groom give up “marital bliss” and join up with them. The “wedding” was not valid they pointed out. The distressed couple pleaded with the tigers and obtained a few days “grace” to complete wedding rituals .
The tigers agreed and went away. The groom and bride “escaped” and hid themselves elsewhere. The tigers returned and were infuriated at this defiance. They abducted the grooms sister and the bride’s brother and took them away. The groom was asked to present himself within a week. Otherwise the siblings would not return , warned the LTTE.
The groom was extremely agitated and worried. After pondering the situation for days in a frustrated and confused mental state the man committed suicide by hanging on February 5th. He died exactly two weeks after his marriage.
This woeful tale is being talked about widely in the LTTE areas and elsewhere now. Many people are highly critical of the LTTE for this act which encapsules the predicament faced by ordinary Tamils under the jackboots of the LTTE.
In a bid to counter this resentment the LTTE is now putting a counter spin by spreading the rumour that the man was diagnosed with terminal cancer and therefore had taken his own life .
Some of the persons taken by the tigers have managed to escape and go into hiding. The LTTE has sent letters to the families saying the “escapees” must surrender themselves before a particular date. Otherwise family members will have to face consequences the tigers warn.
In another incident on Feb 9th in Vattakachchi an elder sister was taken in place of a younger sister who went into hiding. The protesting parents were kicked and pushed aside.
The incident however is now causing a major headache to the LTTE as the abducted woman’s maternal uncle presently residing in Canada has protested openly about the incident. Gajan Kanagarajah of Mississauga in the Ontario Province of Canada has written an open letter on Feb 17th. In that letter he has pleaded for international assistance to secure the safe release of his 27 year old niece Pathmaseeli .
The full text of the letter is reproduced here -
Gajan Kanagarajah
5299 Landsborough Avenue,
Mississauga ON
L5R 3X1
T.Ph: 416 939 2064
17 February 2007
To Whom It May Concern:
I am a citizen of Canada and presently living in Canada for the last fourteen (14) years. I was born in Kilinochchi, Sri Lanka. I have four (4) brothers and five (5) sisters. I have two sisters still living in Kilinochchi, Vanni district, Sri Lanka.
I am writing this letter seeking your help to secure the release of my niece PATHMASEELI KANAGARAJAH who was forcibly taken by the LTTE on 9 February 2007 from her home in Kilinochchi.
I state that one of my two sisters still living in Kilinochchi is Sooriyavathana Kanagarajah and she has five children; four (4) daughters and one son. The eldest daughter is married and lives in Toronto and all other children (three daughters and the son) are still in Kilinochchi, Sri Lanka. One other daughter is also married and lives separately in Kilinochchi. The rest of the children, two daughters and the son live with my sister and her husband. They live at Vinayagar Lane, Vaddakachchi, Kilinochchi, Sri Lanka.
I state that recently the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) took a census in Kilinochchi district and took note of all the children living in all households.
I have first hand information that one of the daughters of my sister, Pathmaseeli Kanagarajah, born on 10 December 1980, had been forcibly removed from her home by the LTTE on 9 February 2007. This had taken place around afternoon hours.
On 9 February 2007, some LTTE men came to my sister’s house and demanded the release of my sister’s youngest daughter Thenuga Kanagarajah, 23yrs, to be taken by them and to be given military training. However, as they had information that conscription was going on that day along Vinayagar Lane, the prospective conscript Thenuga went into hiding before the LTTE entered their home. Pathamaseeli did not fear the LTTE on that day as she was under the belief that the LTTE would take only the youngest in the family.
I state that when the LTTE entered home and found that Thenuga was missing they went into searching all over the house, including the adjoining house that belongs to my other sister. The LTTE members got very angry and demanded Pathmaseeli to join them. When she declined, she was pulled and dragged to the LTTE vehicle. My sister and her husband interfered and tried to save her. But they were kicked violently and pushed aside. Pathmaseeli cried loudly and shouted at her parents seeking help but to no avail.
I state that my niece Pathmaseeli never intended to join the LTTE or any other militant movement. I state that she was taken against her will and she is being detained forcibly by the LTTE now.
I am making this statement voluntarily and under no compulsion, threat or fear. I need your help in seeking the release of my niece Pathmaseeli and I demand that she is released by the LTTE immediately.
Yours truly,
[Gajan Kanagarajah]
Kanagarajah is now sending copies of this letter to organizations such as the Amnesty International. Human Rights watch, Red Cross, UNHCR and also to the various diplomatic missions stationed in Colombo. He has also sent the letter to representatives of the Canadian Government at various levels. Copies of the letter have also been sent to various media institutions.
This is perhaps the first time that a Tamil person of Sri Lankan origin has dared to come out openly against the LTTE by seeking international help to get a close relative released from tiger custody. The exercise is more a desperate appeal to the collective conscience of the world rather than an act of defiance against the LTTE.
Kanagarajah’s action is a brave and courageous one given the fact that his sisters and their families are residing in the Wanni still. Will the world hear these anguished cries or maintain a deafening silence?
Continuous forcible recruitment is alienating the Tamil people from the LTTE. The tigers with their military mindset fail to recognize this and are ruthlessly intensifying their conscription drive to meet self – imposed deadlines.
After promulgating a child protection act the LTTE is concentrating on over seventeens as targets of recruitment. Conscripted adults do not fall under the category of child soldiers. But such “conscriptions” are abductions and therefore criminal offences as well as ceasefire violations.
The LTTE’s conduct in matters concerning Children too are not satisfactory.
UN special envoy Allan Rock who met LTTE political commissar Suppiah Paramu Thamilselvan last November pointed out that the LTTE’s Child Protection Act t ” does not respect international law and norms applicable to the protection of children in armed conflict, because it establishes 17 as the minimum age for recruitment.”
“It is therefore in contravention of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict, which Sri Lanka has signed and ratified, and which establishes 18 as the minimum age for recruitment. ” stressed Rock to Thamilselvan.
Allan Rock also submitted his report on Children and armed conflict in Sri Lanka to the UN security Council working group on Feb 9th. Rock called upon the LTTE to adhere to the following in that report .
(i) immediately stop all recruitment of children, defined as all persons below the age of 18.
(ii) fulfill its commitment to me to release all children in its ranks and work with UNICEF towards the return of those children to their families;
(iii) train and discipline its commanders so that they are well aware that the recruitment and deployment of children will not be tolerated; and
(iv) allow access to all LTTE camps by UNICEF and other international protection agencies to determine whether child recruits are present.”
Allan Rock also recommended that the Working Group propose to the Security Council that it should
(i) consider targeted measures against LTTE to address its continuing failure or refusal to stop recruiting and deploying children; those measures might include travel bans, asset freezes and an arms embargo;
(ii) call upon Member States to assist in the application of those measures;
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Entry Filed under: MinorMatters
