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Tuesday, April 13, 2004
Sri Lanka's rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam freed nearly 150 child
soldiers today in what UNICEF said was the largest single release of child
combatants since the rebel group agreed last year to demobilize children in
its ranks.
The U.N. agency was taking the children into custody in the rebel-held town
of Vakarai, where the main LTTE group regained control after defeating a
renegade faction yesterday.
Two days ago, UNICEF had asked warring LTTE factions to free child soldiers
after reports that underage combatants had been wounded and killed in the
most recent fighting.
Military sources said some of the combatants released today were among
approximately 300 renegade fighters captured Friday by the main LTTE group.
Since November, the LTTE has been freeing small numbers of children to
UNICEF-sponsored "transit homes," from which they are returned to their
families (Agence France-Presse/ReliefWeb, April 13).
"We hope that this large release of children is the beginning of a new trend
by the LTTE toward the large-scale demobilization of child soldiers and
meeting their commitments under the peace process," UNICEF resident head Ted
Chaiban said in a statement.
The location of renegade leader V. Muralitharan, known as Karuna, was
unknown today, and most of his fighters had dispersed, Reuters reported.
Thousands of civilians displaced by fighting in the east were also returning
home after the defeat of Karuna, who broke apart from the main LTTE group in
March with about 6,000 of its 15,000 troops.
"We visited the area and found the situation returning to normal and that
there is no conflict at all," said Sukumar Rockwood, a spokesman for the
International Committee of the Red Cross. "People were found gradually
returning to their homes" (Lindsay Beck, Reuters, April 13).
The Sri Lankan government said it would consider granting Karuna asylum if
he made a request.
"If there is a request, we are willing to consider it on humanitarian
grounds," said Defense Secretary Cyril Herath. "But we have not heard from
him. He is very much on his own" (Sena Vidanagama, AFP/ReliefWeb, April
13).
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