Prevent child recruitment

The International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC), according to our lead news item yesterday, has made it known that it cannot act in respect of the abduction by the LTTE of children to use them as child combatants unless their parents make formal complaints to that effect. This looks a valid reason in that the ICRC is an organisation required to maintain neutrality in a conflict. It cannot be faulted for wanting to steer clear of an issue that is detrimental to the interests of a party to the conflict, the LTTE.

Even if parents of these missing children ever made complaints, the ICRC would not be able to go the whole hog in seeking the release of these children as it has its limitations. It is performing a balancing act and therefore should not be asked to take steps that are likely to disturb its balance.

The affected parents, on the other hand, as the military had told the ICRC at a meeting, cannot be expected to make bold to defy the LTTE by reporting their abducted children to the ICRC or any other organisation. They won’t do that for the sake of other precious children of theirs. Defiance of terrorism, as is known, means death.

The government also can do very little about these abductions. They are taking place mostly in the LTTE controlled areas where the law of the land means little. The law of the jungle prevails in these uncleared areas and the Tiger naturally stands to gain at the expense of the civilian populace.

The main Tamil political party, the TULF, too has chosen to be blind to these abduction and the excuse trotted out is, 'We are not aware of abduction.' The ICRC cannot do anything about the problem. The government is helpless and the international community is silent.

Is this testament that terrorism has triumphed over the civilised world? They stop your children on the way back from school or they just knock on your door at night and grab your precious little ones from you to be taken to an unknown fate. The world remains silent.

It may be naive to underestimate the strength of the LTTE. But it is clear that the conventional warfare is not something so easy for it to face. This is evident from its decision to forego Mankulam to capture Kilinochchi. The main handicap of a terrorist outfit embroiled in a protracted war is manpower.

The LTTE no longer has rookies for the asking. The wounded cadres are languishing in the jungles and hundreds have died in battle. Many a myth about it has now been destroyed and whatever victory it has secured has been at a tremendous cost. Pyrrhic victories do not stand the LTTE in good stead in respect of recruitment. It is no longer the invincible organisation that it once claimed to be.

With the countries like the US moving into the battle against global terrorism, the LTTE may have got a foretaste of what is in store for it in the West. Intricacies of European Union Extradition Law, the fate that befell the hate figure of Chile, Pinochet, the overall changing global reality and the setbacks at home interspersed with a victory here and there not worth calling its name are too strong to be counteracted with encomia, Gobellsian lies and heavily edited video footages of battles that have been won and lost.

Hence the need for the LTTE to administer an overdose of terror to the people and abduct their children with a view to retaining whatever remains of its credence as a formidable outfit capable of facing a conventional army. It cannot be oblivious to the fact that it will have to be bogged down in many a protracted battle like that for Mankulam in time to come. This will require more and more manpower.

Forcible conscription is nothing new in terrorist warfare. The history of the present conflict is replete with such instances. But, with the need for more cadres being felt more than ever, the rate of abductions has shown an upward trend. For the past few months, it is said, over 100-150 children have been abducted in the Batticaloa district alone.

The military and political vicissitudes and the pressing problem of lack of combatants all point to the fact that these abductions could be the beginning of a mammoth forcible conscription drive by the LTTE. Deafening silence on the part of all those responsible for safeguarding children, the future of this land, redounds well to the terrorists. Parents are reportedly taking their children to the cleared areas to avoid their abduction in utter desperation. They must be helped to save their children.

This is a task that must not be left to the ICRC alone.