"Stop the LTTE's War
on Sri Lankan Children"
Press Release
Los Angeles Protest Rally to Demand that UNICEF bring LTTE Leaders
to International Criminal Court for War Crimes against Children
Los Angeles, CA - Saffron-robed Buddhist monks, saree-clad women, and
men carrying children's coffins will be among the hundreds of demonstrators
expected to rally on August 5, 2006 from 10 am to 12 noon outside the
Federal Building, 11000 Wilshire Blvd., in Westwood, CA to demand that
UNICEF take action to bring the leaders of the Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Eelam to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to face charges
for war crimes against children.
According to the US State Department, there is credible evidence that
the LTTE are holding about 5000 children in combat camps. In 2004 alone
the LTTE recruited 1000 children. Children abducted from schools and
homes are held in LTTE camps where they undergo training in guerilla
combat and prepare for deadly missions such as suicide bombings.
The escalation of tension between the LTTE and government security
forces in recent months has led to an intensified drive by the Tigers
to recruit children, which in turn is forcing hundreds of families to
flee their homes.
The Sri Lankan government, under immense international pressure, signed
a peace treaty in 2002 with the LTTE which severely restricts its ability
to investigate criminal activities in areas deemed to be under the militants'
control.
Rallying under the banner of the local expatriate activist group 'Sri
Lankan Patriots,' protesters will launch a worldwide petition calling
on UNICEF Director Ann M. Veneman to follow the United Nations' own
resolutions and to invoke international laws such as the Rome Statute
to bring the Tiger leaders before the International Criminal Court for
conscripting children as combatants. An online petition has already
been launched.
Spokesperson for the group Hassina Leelarathna said that as the world's
leading children's organization UNICEF has failed in its attempts for
over a decade to stop the recruitment of children in the island's north
and east from the predominant Tamil militant group the LTTE. The UN
agency is also accused of compromising the welfare of the children by
cooperating with the LTTE -- a view shared by the leading rights group
Human Rights Watch.
"Every year UNICEF officials make a trip to Sri Lanka and extract
a promise from the rebels that they will free the children. A token
few are released, only to be re-abducted. A few weeks ago, even as UNICEF
was making its annual plea, the Tigers stepped up their recruitment
drive, taking dozens of children away from their parents."
Leelarathna, who is the editor of the bi-weekly newspaper 'Sri Lanka
Express', said the arrest by the ICC, in March of this year, of Congolese
rebel leader Thomas Lubanga Dyilo for war crimes, including the conscription
and enlisting of children under 15, is a turning point. This is the
first such arrest by the ICC and it opens the door for the arrest and
prosecution of leaders of all militant groups who use children to fight
wars.
"There is overwhelming evidence that the LTTE has conscripted
children, some as young as ten, including tsunami victims, and we are
demanding that UNICEF take the steps needed to bring the LTTE before
the International Court, so similar punitive action may be taken against
this group that has openly flouted international norms for the past
twenty years," she said.
The Rome Statute, under which the ICC was established, requires that
a state government or the United Nations Security Council refer the
'situation' to the ICC prosecutor for a criminal investigation to commence.
Buddhist monk Rev. Aparekke Punyasiri of the Maithri Buddhist Meditation
Center said the August 5 rally is being organized in the face of the
LTTE's intensified recruitment drive in recent weeks. "We cannot
ignore the plight of hundreds of Sri Lankan children. It is urgent that
we act now," he said.
He said copies of the petition will also be circulated among US leaders
to create awareness of the problem.
"The petition drive and protests will continue for as long as
we have children being trained as combatants and suicide bombers,"
he said.
Contact: Hassina Leelarathna (818) 897-7035; hassina@srilankaexpress.org
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