International
Rights group asks Oslo to protect Tamil civilians from LTTE
By Nirupama Subramanian
COLOMBO, FEB. 1. A Tamil human rights group has asked Norway, which is facilitating a peace process in Sri Lanka, to protect civilians in the north- east of the island by ensuring that the LTTE stopped political killings, extortion and the recruitment of child soldiers.
Detailing in a report instances of recruitment of children and abduction of adults for ransom by the LTTE and murders of those opposed to it over the last month, the University Teachers for Human Rights (UTHR) has accused the Government, Tamil political parties, and civil society of turning a blind eye to these incidents so as not to upset the peace process.
``In these circumstances, it falls to other actors concerned in the peace process to safeguard children's rights and create normal conditions on the political front as well. A huge responsibility falls on Norway that has been called upon to play a facilitating role,'' the UTHR said in the report, which was released today. It added that the Special Representative of the U.N. Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict had a crucial role to play.
Formed in 1988 as a watchdog of Tamil human rights, the UTHR is a group of former Jaffna University teachers which has been vociferously critical of the LTTE. One of its members was killed by the LTTE, and the remaining left the peninsula when the LTTE took control of it in 1990.
But through its network of informants in the north, the group puts out periodic reports about civilian life under the LTTE in northern and eastern Sri Lanka.
``We need to put mechanisms in place to monitor not only violations of the truce between the state and the LTTE, but also the use of terror and violations against civilians by both sides,'' the UTHR points out in its latest report.
According to the report, three civilians, one of them a former LTTE member, have been killed since December 24, when both the LTTE and the Government began observing a truce.
The report gives names of 10 children, all between the ages of 12 and 15, and a 28-year-old woman, who were ``forcibly removed'' from their homes in Kiran in Batticaloa and from near Mutur in Trincomalee.
Those who fled Kiran with their children later found out that their homes had been burnt down by the LTTE.
Terrified Tamil parents are getting their children married early in order to avoid their conscription by the LTTE, the report alleges, pointing at a sudden increase in the number of teenage mothers in parts of eastern Sri Lanka.
Extortion by the LTTE's so-called finance wing is on the rise. The report says that the number of persons being called and threatened or detained for extortion is ``simply enormous''.
A Government official in Vakkarai, north of Batticaloa, who was kidnapped last month for ransom, has still not been released. Another Government official was called and warned for not making collections from his staff.
``Today, the Tamils in the north-east are being subject to the abduction of their children, political violence and both the Tamils and Muslims to systematic extortion and kidnapping for ransom. While the Sri Lankan forces are removing checkpoints and allowing the LTTE to move into areas under their control, the LTTE is imposing new barriers to monitor its own people,'' the report said. On Thursday, Kinniya, a predominantly Muslim town in Trincomalee, observed a general strike in protest against forcible ``taxation'' by the LTTE. Shops and offices were shut, and there was no public transport.
As Muslims have been particularly targeted for extortion, the leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, Rauff Hakeem, wrote an open letter to the LTTE leader, V. Prabhakaran, last month, asking him to restrain his cadres, but it seems to have been in vain.
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