Sri Lanka
According to UNICEF in a report published in 2011, more than 60 per cent of t...
According to UNICEF in a report published in 2011, more than 60 per cent of the LTTE's fighting cadre from 1983 to 2002 consisted of boys and girls less than 18 years of age. UNICEF recorded more than 5,700 cases of child recruitment by the LTTE from 2003 to 2009. Human Rights Watch has suggested a figure of more than 21,000. Following the tsunami, orphaned children were harvested for combat purposes. Child soldiers were also used as suicide bombers, especially girls. Each family was forced to surrender even very young children for combat purposes in the final stages of the conflict. The LTTE had no scruples about sacrificing thousands of children in the frontline of combat. Children were given cyanide capsules by their leaders to commit suicide to avoid capture.
At the Geneva peace talks in February 2006, the LTTE publicly conceded that i...
At the Geneva peace talks in February 2006, the LTTE publicly conceded that it was holding thousands of children as combatants. With the end of the conflict, 594 child combatants — 231 girls and 363 boys between the ages of 12 and 18 years — were taken into custody by the security forces. The Government adopted a caring attitude with those former child combatants, treating them with a sensitivity rarely seen elsewhere, as victims and not as perpetrators of violent crimes. They were placed in institutional rehabilitation centres and received access to education, vocational training, health care and psycho-social support. Following their rehabilitation process, they have all been reunited with their immediate or extended families. That happened as early as May 2010. The rehabilitation and reintegration of child soldiers was a priority for Sri Lanka. Family reunions are continuing to take place with the assistance of the International Committee of the Red Cross and UNICEF, which has continued to assist with its extensive background of experience and goodwill.