Date:14/11/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/11/14/stories/2008111457151700.htm

International

“LTTE is engaged in forcible conscription”

B. Muralidhar Reddy

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s military on Thursday announced that Task Force-1 troops, who are spearheading the military’s efforts in western Kilinochchi, have entered the Devil’s Point and Vallaipadu areas on Thursday.

A Defence Ministry statement claimed the fall of “these strategically-important coastal LTTE fortifications” were inevitable as they have been sealed off.

It further said the military forces in Vallayarkuttirukkumoddai, east of the 7th Mile Post on the A-32 Road, near Palavi, learned that one of the three female LTTE cadre, Nilaveli, who was captured, used to work as an English teacher in a school. It later released a video of Ms. Nilaveli. In the message, Ms. Nilaveli said she joined the LTTE’s “Saiver Regiment” to prevent conscription of her teenaged brother and sister. A graduate of the reputed Kopay College of Education, she drew her salary from the Department of Education, Kilinochchi. The other two cadre have been identified as Kilavedi (18) and Thuruveli (19). The trio hail from Kilinochchi, Paranthan and Mallavi.

Ms. Nilaveli claimed more than 100 of her colleagues, some of them her batch-mates, still remain within the LTTE’s fold. Ms. Nilaveli told the military she was compelled to join the LTTE to save her siblings’ lives, since the LTTE has ordered at least one member from each family to join the outfit.

Almost all officials, clerks, lower-grade employees of the Department of Agriculture, several other government agencies and officials of Kilinochchi-based NGOs, following the LTTE’s ‘orders’, have been forced to serve on the frontline, she added.