Recruited at a tender age and subjected to violence and brutality,
the Tamil Tigers' youngest conscripts now seek to regain a future that
was robbed from them.
By Pradeep Seneviratne for Khabar South Asia in Colombo
July 06, 2012
Winston Jeyakumari was only 15 years old when she was plucked from
school by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2007 and forced
into conscription. The teenage girl was taken to a camp in the northern
hinterlands of Sri Lanka, to be trained as a child soldier to fight
against the advancing Sri Lankan government troops.
"They bundled me into a vehicle and took me away. My family members
knew about my whereabouts only after four days," she told Khabar South
Asia. "On and off, I participated in battles against the military."
What happened later altered the course of her life.
"I was employed by the LTTE in their bomb manufacturing plant. One
day, a bomb which I examined exploded," she said. "My hands were severed
from the elbows. I lost the sight of one eye. I underwent treatment at a
hospital in the uncleared areas of the north at that time."
"[Now] I cannot do any productive work. I spend all day reading story
books, listening to music or watching TV," Jeyakumari told Khabar.
Along with many others, she surrendered in the waning days of the war
in 2009. Following her interrogation, she was transferred to a
rehabilitation programme in Poontottam. There, she received
psychological counseling by experts.
Today, she lives with her mother and relatives in her hometown of
Nayaru in the north. She holds the LTTE responsible for her present
plight.
It is experiences like her that put Sri Lanka onto the UN's "List of
Shame" of countries where children are recruited, killed, maimed, or
subjected to sexual violence in conflict zones.
With its civil war now over,
Sri Lanka was removed from that list earlier this year, having
successfully completed Security Council-mandated programmes to end the
recruitment and use of children, the world body said. "No new cases of
recruitment of children by armed groups have been reported since October
2009," it said.
Activists, policy makers and ordinary people welcomed Sri Lanka's removal from the list.
"This is a move entirely to be welcomed. But what is more important
is to maintain it and advance on it," said Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu,
executive director of the Colombo-based civil society organisation,
Centre for Policy Alternatives.
According to the UN, the LTTE recruited a total of 6,905 children. The whereabouts of 1,373 remain unknown.
Of those who have been located and
rehabilitated,
some attend schools, whereas others are engaged in different kinds of
work for living, according to Commissioner General of Rehabilitations
Chandana Rajaguru.
"For rehabilitation of child soldiers and others, we provided
educational programmes and cultural activities in addition to
psychological counseling. Besides, we did religious programmes," he told
Khabar.
Of the rehabilitated child soldiers, some have been enrolled in the
school called Hindu College in Ratmalana, a southern suburb of Colombo.
Former principal Udaya Kumara said that 20 child soldiers were sent there in January.
"They are keen to study along with other students. But they look
traumatised. All of them had been forcibly recruited. They need more and
more counseling," Kumar, who was recently promoted to become an
education official in the western province, told Khabar.
One-time LTTE commander for the eastern province Vinayagamoorthy
Muralitharan, who defected from the organisation in 2004 over an
internal issue and joined the government, said that he regretted the use
of child soldiers.
"When I was with the LTTE, I remember, a large number of child
soldiers were recruited. The LTTE leadership should be held
responsible," he told Khabar.
"A large number died in battles with the military. We cannot blame
the military for that. In a war zone, one cannot distinguish child
soldiers from the others," said Muralitharan, who is now the
government's deputy minister of resettlement.
