Child soldiers

In what was a Pyrrhic victory for either the LTTE or the military in the north the other day over one thousand cadres were killed on both sides. The battle is lost and won and both sides are trying to save face.

In the wake of a fierce battle, as we pointed out yesterday, it is difficult to take a body count and decide who has suffered more in terms of loss of life.

But the surrender of 26 child cadres of the so-called ‘Baby Brigade’ has peeled off the mask of the LTTE and exposed to the world what it has brought upon the Tamil community in the name of liberation.

It was only a few months ago that the LTTE made a pledge to the UN special envoy Olara Ottunu that it would put an end to the use of children in the war.

While the world was celebrating the International Children’s Day on Thursday, wounded and forlorn these children appeared on television relating what had befallen them. It was obvious that these children had been the victims of the much dreaded terrorist conscription drive.

Terror that the LTTE unleashes to achieve its ends is such that parents of these children may not have had a say in the matter when the terrorists knocked on their doors demanding their children. Or perhaps some of these children out of ignorance at their hero worshipping age may have succumbed to the LTTE propaganda that glorifies those who are fighting against the state.

In any civilised part of the world children of this age should be in school studying and enjoying themselves rather than be converted fanatics.

Those who are living in uncleared areas are cut out from the rest of the world and are usually the takers for the various lies that the terrorists palm off as the truth. Amidst these people, the terrorists find a fertile recruiting ground and make canon fodder of the children living in a world full of uncertainty.

Besides being used as a shield to break military defences, these children serve another purpose for the terrorists. That is if they survive the attacks that the LTTE launches at their expense against the military and grow up to be young men and women, in them the LTTE finds dedicated battle hardened cadres.

This is a time tested method that only terrorists can afford. And the LTTE is using that to the fullest.

This is why we expressed skepticism when the LTTE made that promise to Mr. Ottunu, which led to euphoria in some circles.

What intrigues us is why those who are clamouring against the war against terrorism, which to them is only one facet of a liberation struggle by a group to achieve a certain end, have not taken up the issue of child combatants of the LTTE. Children are the future of this country and that of any community. To use them as canon fodder is the most heinous crime that can be committed against the country and the community they belong to.

Can whatever a terrorist group has achieved through purely violent methods at the expense of the future of children be considered ‘fruits of a contest’?

The LTTE depends for survival to a great extent on the funds being poured in from overseas. And aren’t those who are financing the terrorist war from abroad making a contribution also towards destroying the future of their own community?

What moral right do they have to demonstrate in far away countries against the war Sri Lanka is waging against terrorism while causing future of their children to be destroyed?

The Mankulam battle has once again laid bare the true face of the LTTE as a terrorist outfit destroying the future of the Tamil community and thereby that of the country. Time has come for a concerted effort by all parents and those who care for children to pressurise the LTTE to stop using children in the war.

The government for its part must ensure safety of those children who surrender, and rehabilitate them. This is the best way to give the lie to the much propagated LTTE lie that the war is against the Tamil community.