Sri Lanka has been engaged in a civil war for 25 years, causing displacement, death, and poverty, and while many have longed for peace it appears it now one step farther away, as on January 16, 2008 the Sri Lankan government ended a 2002 ceasefire with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Since calling off the ceasefire agreement dozens of innocent civilians, many children have become the targets of hostility. Currently their are some quarter of a million people displaced, a large majority of whom are children, left without their basic fundamental rights to education, healthcare and nutrition.
The escalating war takes toll on children, as more are killed and injured in attacks attributable to the Tamil Tigers, and fighting with government forces. Many of those injured or killed have been children on their way home from school. The result of the attacks have left massive disruption to education as parents flee their homes in search of safety to escape the bombing attacks. Since the beginning of 2008 at least 21 child deaths have been reported in assaults blamed on the Tamil Tigers and government forces in the northern and southern parts of the island.
“Both the Sri Lanka government and the LTTE are failing to comply with their obligations under international humanitarian law and are killing civilians on an increasingly regular basis. With no perpetrators brought to justice a climate of impunity is becoming entrenched: unless these patterns are reversed the future appears bleak” said Tim Parritt, deputy program director for Amnesty International Asia-Pacific.
Additionally the use of claymore mines, a landmine type of explosive mostly hidden underground; explodes when stepped on or driven over, has escalated in the past three years have been used to indiscriminately target civilians, including children. On 29 January,2008 20 people, including 11 children, were killed as the school bus, which travels each day on the same route, was hit by a mine explosion (Claymore mines used to lethal effect). According to recent reports from Amnesty International, government forces are preparing to launch major offensives against the Tigers in the northern parts of the island, which will further intensify the violence.
Sadly`the lives of children are not only being destroyed by attacks and the crossfire of forces, but also by their recruitment as child soldiers. Countless thousands of child soldiers have been forcibly recruited by Tamil Tiger rebels during the 25 year conflict, some 3,516 during the period of the 2002 ceasefire with the government (UNICEF/HWR). The agency states that this figure represents only a portion of the total number of children recruited. Just this week youths with LTTE links surrender to Security Forces, according to government defense sources at least 44 youths (ages where not stated) surrendered to the Security Forces on Tuesday, February 26th to seek protection from the Human Rights Commission. While the recruitment of children has decreased in recent years, any use of children in combat remains a deplorable act. “Between 1 November 2006 and 31 August 2007, some 262 children were recruited by the LTTE, including 32 who were re-recruited, according to reports received by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF). This represents a significant decrease as compared to the previous 12-month period, when 756 children were reportedly recruited, including 97 who were re-recruited (UN).”
The war, which has has left an estimated 70,000 people dead since the beginning of the conflict in 1983, continues to rage and in its wake one finds the innocent and the lost…the children. It is therefore apparent that neither the ceasefire agreement or the actions to call it off have been effective in eliminating abuses of children, and that all parties must be held accountable for their actions in both domestic and international law. As a global community we can no longer watch as decades more children in Sri Lanka are left to know nothing more than violence.
