DATE=5/12/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=SOUTH ASIA - CHILD SOLDIERS (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-262268
BYLINE=ANJANA PASRICHA
DATELINE=NEW DELHI
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: A group of international non-governmental
organizations says Tamil Tiger rebels in Sri Lanka are
among the militant groups in South Asia using hundreds
of child soldiers. The London-based group has recently
brought out a report on use of children by armies and
militant groups in Asia. The Tamil Tigers are
currently engaged in a major offensive with Sri Lankan
forces in
the north of that country. From New Delhi, Anjana
Pasricha has a report.
Text: The London-based Coalition to Stop the Use of
Child Soldiers says Tamil Tigers recruit both girls as
well as boys, sometimes as young as ten
years old - and often send them to the frontlines to
fight.
Convener of the Coalition, Rory Mungoven, says
although the use of child soldiers has been a
systematic pattern with the Tamil Tigers in the last
decade - the rebels have been increasingly turning to
school children and orphans to replenish their
strength in the last two years.
/ / / INSERT MUNGOVEN ACTUALITY / / /
The process involves a lot of pressure on teachers,
families, community leaders to offer up children.
People talk of the expectation that every family will
provide one (child). Tiger cadres routinely visit
schools, they shut down
lessons, they drill the children, they subject them to
all sorts of indoctrination and propoganda in a bid to
lure them into their ranks.
/ / / END MUNGOVEN ACTUALITY / / /
Mr. Mongoven says a typical unit of children is
trained by the Tamil Tigers for four months in the
jungle. All links with the families are broken and
discipline is strict. The children are used as
couriers, spies, and often in active combat. Last
October, the Red Cross found the bodies of 49 children
including 32 girls among the 140 Tamil Tiger fighters
killed after a battle in the north. (at Ampakamam, Sri
Lanka)
/ / / INSERT MUNGOVEN ACTUALITY / / /
We've seen organized battalions of children being used
by the Tigers. Sri Lankan soldiers have told chilling
stories of attacks where the Tigers have
retreated perhaps leaving their wounded children in
no-man's land though the night crying for help. Often
the children are too afraid to take cyanide capsules
given to them to commit suicide.
/ / / END MUNGOVEN ACTUALITY / / /
Tamil Tigers have been fighting for a separate
homeland in Sri lanka since 1983. The coalition says
the Tigers are continuing to recruit children despite
promises to the United Nations not to use child
soldiers - and has
expressed fears that a new wave of recruitment may
follow the current conflict in northern Sri Lanka.
The Coalition has also accused other rebel groups in
South Asia - specifically in Kashmir and in India's
northeast - of using child soldiers in their fight
against government forces.
(rest opt)
Mr. Mungoven explains why rebel groups like to use
children.
/ / / INSERT MUNGOVEN ACTUALITY / / /
They are often less subject to suspicion by security
forces, they are easier
to infiltrate behind the enemy line. They can be
couriers, spies, they can be safe carriers for bombs.
Equally, military psychology studies show it's a lot
easier to condition and train young people into
becoming fearless killers, into being unthinkingly
obedient, and this is really the main reason why armed
groups like to get their hands on children. It is
because they are able to indoctrinate and train
children to commit atrocities much more easily.
/ / / END MUNGOVEN ACTUALITY / / /
The Coalition estimates there are more than 300,000
child soldiers in the world - mostly in Africa and
Asia. (signed)
NEB/AP/PLM
12-May-2000 07:44 AM EDT (12-May-2000 1144 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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