SRI LANKA: LTTE POST-TSUNAMI CHILD RECRUITMENT,

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 COLOMBO 000324 SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR SA, SA/INS NSC FOR DORMANDY E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/10/2015 TAGS: PTER PHUM CE LTTE SUBJECT: SRI LANKA: LTTE POST-TSUNAMI CHILD RECRUITMENT, RUMORED BREAK WITH UNICEF REF: A. 04 COLOMBO 1594 ¶B. 04 COLOMBO 1843 Classified By: James F. Entwistle, Deputy Chief of Mission. 1.4 (b,d) ¶1. (C) Summary. January media reports highlighted Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) recruitment of child soldiers in the north and east, particularly in welfare camps for tsunami-affected persons. In early February, displeased by unfavorable media attention, the LTTE threatened to pull out of UNICEF's Action Plan for Children, but to date, has not done so. On February 3 the Tigers, in a direct nose-thumbing at its agreement with UNICEF, released 23 children to the LTTE's North East Secretariat on Human Rights (NESOHR). Continuing Tiger recruitment is no surprise, but releasing children to an LTTE-run organization created to deflect criticism of Tiger human rights violations is a departure from the LTTE's usual practice. The Tigers' agreement with UNICEF allows the LTTE to showcase "concern" for child recruitment, but at a cost--UNICEF demands for more releases of child soldiers grow increasingly louder. By bypassing UNICEF in this latest move, the LTTE may be sending a message that international criticism of its human rights abuses--even if valid--is not welcome. End Summary. -------------- -------------- No Surprise: Pre-Tsunami LTTE Promises to UNICEF Broken -------------- -------------- ¶2. (U) December 26, 2004 press reports (written pre-tsunami) claimed that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had embarked on a house-to-house recruitment campaign of children and adults, focusing on the Jaffna, Trincomalee and Vavuniya areas; and that the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) was aware of the situation and termed it a cease-fire violation. -------------- -- Post-Tsunami LTTE Recruitment of Child Soldiers -------------- -- 3.(C) Reports of LTTE child recruitment continued throughout January. Local and international media repeatedly reported LTTE recruitment of child soldiers in the north and east, particularly in welfare camps for tsunami-affected persons. In response to multiple press inquiries in January, UNICEF spokesman Geoff Keele revealed that post-tsunami, the LTTE had recruited 40 children. On January 21, Sri Lankan media reported that LTTE's Tamilchelvan told UNHCR Assistant High Commissioner Kamel Morjane that the allegations against the LTTE were "totally false and a fabrication to malign us." UNICEF lead protection officer Christine Watkins told poloff on February 7 that since the December 26 tsunami, UNICEF had documented 51 cases of child recruitment, although only 4 cases were tsunami-affected children. Most cases were from Trincomalee and Vavuniya, and none from the Ampara area. Watkins noted that the number of children recruited by the LTTE is consistent with recent Tiger recruitment patterns. -------------- LTTE, Touchy About International Criticism -------------- ¶4. (C) In early February, a rumor emerged that the LTTE was planning to pull out of UNICEF's Action Plan for Children (Reftel A). UNICEF's Watkins said that UNICEF's earlier press comments about LTTE recruitment in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps had caused the LTTE to "tense up," prompting an LTTE demand that UNICEF not publicize Tiger recruitment. According to UNICEF Protection Officer Bo Viktor Nylund, the LTTE threatened UNICEF with withdrawing from the Action Plan. To date, they have not acted on this threat. Since the tsunami, according to Nylund, the LTTE has not handed over any children to UNICEF as required under the action plan. ¶5. (C) On February 3, according to the LTTE Peace Secretariat website and other press reports, the Tigers SIPDIS released 23 children--but not to UNICEF. Instead, the Tigers released the children, whom they characterized as having "volunteered for enlistment with the LTTE," to the North East Secretariat on Human Rights (NESOHR),an organization the LTTE created in July 2004 (Reftel B). The LTTE Peace Secretariat website reported that four of the children were SIPDIS handed over to their parents, but that NESOHR would maintain custody of the other children until their parents are located, as "extra caution is being exercised... to avoid children going into wrong anti-social elements." UNICEF's Nylund told poloff that UNICEF was not able to verify this information, and that the children would not be counted as releases in the UNICEF child soldier database. ¶6. (C) Rory Mungoven, the UN's Senior Advisor on Human Rights for Sri Lanka, told poloff that he sees the LTTE's release of children to NESOHR as something that might have happened anyway, tsunami or no. He surmised that the LTTE was sending a message to UNICEF: if UNICEF criticizes Tiger recruitment, then the Tigers will bypass UNICEF entirely and use their own organizations (Tamil Rehabilitation Organization and NESOHR) to "address" human rights issues. ¶7. (C) Human Rights Watch (HRW) Asia Researcher Tejshree Thapa told poloff February 1 about LTTE regarding HRW's coverage of the issue, including HRW's October 2004 report on LTTE child recruitment and November and December 2004 meetings HRW hosted in Toronto and London to educate diaspora populations about LTTE child recruitment practices in those cities. Thapa recounted that the LTTE disrupted the public meetings in both locations by intimidating people who tried to speak in the meetings, and forbidding participants from speaking in Tamil. Later, the LTTE distributed circulars (in English) in Toronto and London claiming the human rights group was linked to Al Qaeda. -------------- Comment -------------- ¶8. (C) Continuing Tiger recruitment of children is no surprise, but releasing children to NESOHR, an LTTE-run organization created to deflect criticism of LTTE human rights violations, is a departure from the LTTE's practice so far. The Action Plan for Children is the only quasi-treaty the LTTE has with any international actor, and thus is valuable to the Tigers as a way to reinforce the LTTE's legitimacy both in Sri Lanka and abroad. The agreement with UNICEF allows the LTTE to showcase "concern" for child recruitment, but at a cost--UNICEF demands for more releases of child soldiers grow increasingly louder. The Tigers, if their clamp-down on HRW meetings with Tamil diaspora last autumn is any indication, are determined to stop public criticism of their child recruitment practices (if not the actual recruitment itself). By bypassing UNICEF in this latest move, the LTTE may be sending a message that international criticism of its human rights abuses--even if valid--is not welcome. LUNSTEAD