Allan Rock, the U.N. special representative for children and armed conflict on Sri Lanka, announces that a section of the Government forces has been actively aiding and abetting the Karuna faction in recruiting child soldiers to fight the LTTE.

Sources
Sri Lanka youth ‘seized to fight’, BBC, 13 November 2006; Karuna Group abducts children for combat, Human Rights Watch, 24 January 2007.

Extracts from Report of Allan Rock, Special Adviser to the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict on Sri Lanka

“As documented in the Secretary-General’s Report, the LTTE has been actively recruiting and abducting children in the northern and eastern districts of Sri Lanka for years. Despite having been repeatedly named by the Secretary-General in his annual reports to the Security Council on child recruitment, and despite LTTE’s own repeated promises that it would stop child recruitment and release the children in its ranks, UNICEF has verified, and the Secretary-General has reported, LTTE’s continued pattern of abduction, recruitment and use of children.

“The Karuna faction abducts and recruits children into its forces. It does so exclusively in the eastern districts of Sri Lanka. The Secretary-General’s Report disclosed that from November 2005 to October 2006, there were 164 reports of children having been abducted by the Karuna faction, 142 of whom still remain in its ranks. Since May 2006, the number of abductions has increased sharply. In the space of one week in mid-June 2006 alone, UNICEF received 30 reports alleging that children had been abducted by the Karuna faction in the areas of Santhiveli, Kiran, Mankerni, Valachchenai and Iruthayapuram (Manmunai North) of Batticaloa district.

“The fact that the Karuna faction has abducted so many children in Government-controlled areas in the eastern districts of Sri Lanka raises the question why the Government has not more effectively protected those children, investigated the complaints made by the children’s families, and secured the release and return of the children from the Karuna faction camps that are located in areas under Government control.

“Based on the facts and circumstances set out in this report, I have concluded that certain elements of the Sri Lankan security forces are complicit in the abduction of children by the Karuna faction, and that at least some elements of the security forces have facilitated and sometimes participated in those abductions.

“The complicity of certain elements of the security forces in Karuna faction abductions is common knowledge in the eastern areas where I traveled. The civilian population is in no doubt about why Karuna faction members (as described more fully below) work openly with Government security forces at checkpoints, carry weapons on the streets with impunity, and escape investigation despite many complaints to police and security forces about their involvement in child abductions.”