SRI LANKA: TIGERS TRY TO DOWNPLAY, DENY CHARGES

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 COLOMBO 000451

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

STATE FOR SA/INS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM PTER CE UNICEF LTTE
SUBJECT: SRI LANKA: TIGERS TRY TO DOWNPLAY, DENY CHARGES
OF CHILD RECRUITMENT

REF: COLOMBO 324

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SUMMARY
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1. (SBU) Over the past week the local media have given
broad coverage to reports of the February 23 UN Security
Council session on child soldiers, highlighting in particular
the reported recommendation by the Secretary-General's
Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict that
the Council consider sanctions against offending parties.
Locally the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE),which
was said to have been specifically cited in the UN report,
let the story pass without public comment. The Sri Lankan
media, however, reported that the LTTE has written to the
Special Representative in New York proposing to engage in
"dialogue" with the UN--but not, apparently, with UNICEF,
which already has an agreement with the Tigers to end the
recruitment of child soldiers. Embassy would appreciate the
views of the Department and USUN about whether the UN
Security Council will seriously consider sanctions against
the LTTE for failure to comply with its pre-existing
commitment to stop recruiting child soldiers. End summary.

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INTERNATIONAL SPOTLIGHT ON TIGER RECRUITMENT OF KIDS
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2. (U) Over the past week the local English, Sinhala and (to
a much more limited degree) Tamil media have given broad
coverage to the February 23 UN Security Council session on
child soldiers. In particular, local media highlighted the
unfavorable attention garnered by the Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in a report submitted to the Council by
Olara Otunnu, the Secretary-General's Special Representative
for Children and Armed Conflict, as well as Otunnu's
suggestion that the Council consider sanctions, including
travel bans, against offending parties. According to local
reports, the UN Security Council will consider a proposal
from the UN Secretary General for "a monitoring and reporting
mechanism" on the recruitment of child soldiers. In
addition, the state-owned press reported on February 26 that
a recent EU press release had specifically condemned the
LTTE's practice of recruiting child soldiers.


3. (U) The LTTE did not respond locally to Otunnu's report
or to news of the Security Council session, although the
local press and the UN website reported that the Tigers sent
Otunnu a letter stating "their readiness to enter into
dialogue, using the framework of the monitoring and reporting
mechanism." Coverage in the local Tamil-language media
varied, according to the relative degree of ideological
and/or geographic closeness to the Tigers. For example,
TamilNet, the pro-LTTE website, and Uthayan, a pro-LTTE
newspaper in Jaffna, did not allude to the Security Council
session at all. Sudar Oli, a pro-LTTE Tamil vernacula
newspaper, carried only a statement from staff at Eastern
University in Batticaloa District repudiating the UN Special
Representative's report and depicting the LTTE as the
defender of Tamil orphans. (The Trincomalee District School
Principals' Association issued a similar rebuttal.) On the
other hand, independent Tamil daily Virakesari (with the
largest cirulation islandwide) and the government-owned
Thinakaran published excerpts of Otunnu's report, while
Thinakkural, another independent vernacular newspaper, quoted
LTTE Jaffna District Political Wing Leader Ilampirithy's
denial of the practice--but without specific reference to the
report.

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UNICEF: NO MORE "MECHANISMS"
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4. (SBU) Despite the Tigers' absence of public comment,
colleagues in the diplomatic community in contact with the
LTTE indicated to us that the negative scrutiny has the
Tigers worried. An Embassy contact in Batticaloa has also
reported to us that the LTTE has been making the rounds
recently in the east warning religious activists not to
publicize LTTE human rights violations, including child
recruitment, to INGOs and the international community. Ted
Chaiban, UNICEF's ResRep in Sri Lanka,told the Ambassador
that he believed the UN should reject the LTTE offer for
dialogue related to an additional and as-yet unformed
"monitoring and reporting mechanism," since such a mechanism
is already provided for--and is routinely flouted by the
LTTE--in the Action Plan for Children (Reftel).

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COMMENT AND ACTION REQUEST
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5. (SBU) This unfavorable publicity comes at an unwelcome
juncture for the LTTE--just as they are attempting to portray
themselves to Tamils at home and abroad as the beneficent and
humanitarian guardians of tsunami victims in the north and
east. The Tigers have been hoping that their post-tsunami
relief efforts would earn them much-desired respectability
and legitimacy with the UN and other INGOs. In this context,
Otunnu's report is like the proverbial skunk at the family
reunion, and the Tigers' local silence on the issue is not
surprising. The LTTE offer to engage the UN in New York in
"dialogue" is a obvious diversionary tactic; there are plenty
of opportunities for the Tigers to engage with UNICEF here in
Sri Lanka by fulfilling their existing commitments under the
Action Plan for Children. Action Request: Embassy would
appreciate Department's and USUN's views on the likelihood of
sanctions, reportedly suggested by the Special Representative
in his report, being taken up by the UN Security Council.



LUNSTEAD