Commandos rescue eight LTTE child soldiers - Kangikaidichchi Aru
 Police
Commandos the elite corps of the Police Special Task Force (STF) on
Tuesday (August 28) rescued seven child combatants along with another
20-year old youth who had been forced by the LTTE to engage in a
terrorist attack against the security forces in the Kangikaidichchi Aru
area.
According to STF sources, the commandos had rescued
the group of young LTTE cadres comprising four girls and four boys when
they had successfully intercepted a terrorist movement at a location
close to the 212 milepost on the Akkaraipattu- Pothuvil main road.
The group of terrorists had attacked the STF commandos
who had been conducting a clearing operation in the area around 5 am on
Tuesday. The STF personnel had overpowered the terrorist attack
successfully forcing them to flee in all directions.
During the subsequent search, STF personnel found
eight fear-stricken children who had been hiding in the jungle along
with weapons and other military gear belonging to the LTTE.
On inquires, the children have revealed they had come
to attack the STF with a group consisting of about 50 other LTTE
terrorists. The children have further said the terrorists group had
attacked the STF with rocket-propelled grenades and T-56 weapons during
the firefight on Tuesday early morning.
STF officials told defence.lk that there are seven
LTTE child soldiers, boys and girls between the ages 14 and 16 years and
one cadre aged 20 years. It has been further revealed that all the
rescued LTTE cadres had been forcibly recruited to the terrorist outfit
at a very young age. They told the STF that they had been abducted from
their parents by the LTTE at different times, forcibly given arms
training and put into combat. According to the details obtained the
rescued were from Vinayagapuram, Thirukkovil , Kanchankuda and
Akkaraipaththuwa areas. Their names are as follows:
Serial No
|
Name
|
Age
|
Sex
|
|
1 |
Jeewarasa Sudan |
15 |
Male |
|
2 |
Chamuth Nadan |
20 |
Male |
|
3 |
Perumal Sinnathambi |
15 |
Male |
|
4 |
Dharmaratnam Ramesh |
16 |
Male |
|
5 |
Selvarasa Suwarajini |
15 |
Female |
|
6 |
Thuraisingham Sumana |
14 |
Female |
|
7 |
Vigneswaran Vinoyani |
16 |
Female |
|
8 |
Thavarasa Rashika
|
14 |
Female |
During the search STF personnel also seized one
claymore mine, one detonator, one detonator code, one wire roll, three
anti-personnel mines, and one T-56 magazine with rounds along with some
clothing and food items belonged to the LTTE.
In addition, the STF officials said that they had
noticed bloodstains on the ground, raising suspicions that several LTTE
cadres had been seriously injured or killed in the confrontation with
the STF.
Meanwhile, Pro-LTTE media yesterday (August 29)
reported that the Special Task Force had ambushed a group of LTTE cadres
comprising 14 child soldiers in the same area on Tuesday (August 28)
morning. They also claimed that the 14 child combatants were being taken
to be handed over to the parents via UNICEF.
However, the rescued child soldiers, as well as the
adult cadre have revealed that they were unaware about where they had
been led to by the senior LTTE cadres, though they were eagerly waiting
to desert the outfit.
The STF officials told defence.lk that it is highly
unlikely that LTTE was taking the child soldiers to be handed over to
UNICEF as the terrorists had launched several attacks at STF personnel
in the same area during last few days.
The LTTE is a terrorist outfit that has been placed on
the UN's list of shame for using child combatants to fight its war
against Sri Lanka. Led by its psychopathic leader, V.Prabhakaran, the
outfit has been fighting since 1983 for a mono-ethnic separate state for
Tamils.
It is reliably estimated that at present the LTTE
holds over 2000 child soldiers in its shameful "baby brigade" waiting to
be killed as suicide bombers or as one-way fighters as desired by their
leader. The LTTE, as one of their abominable tactics in war, uses
untrained child combatants and teenage girls to lead the frontal
assaults before its male cadres enter the battlefield. It is said the
LTTE leader had introduced this tactic to make the maximum impact in the
initial attack waves. Having been brain-washed and given no option to
turn back, thousands of young combatants had died as one-way fighters in
previous battles.
The STF that arranged for the children to be reunited
with their parents has sent us some emotional moments that its camera
captured when the parents met their loved children whom they lost a
longtime ago. On seeing their teenage daughters with shortly cut hairs,
the mothers burst into tears and cursed the LTTE leader for destroying
their young lives . It is said the LTTE shaves the hair of the girl
recruits and do not permit them to keep long hair again, in order to
break their female image. Also, it is well known that, Prabhakaran's
image as ruthless terror-chief is mostly built by these desperate girls
who had no option but to die a violent death as suicide bombers.
Defence.lk requests LTTE activists living abroad in
comfort and fighting for the "cause" via Internet from safe distances,
to watch what disaster they had brought to the innocent Tamil people in
Sri Lanka; and for LTTE fund raisers and sympathizers to watch the
wicked purpose for which their funds have been used. Finally, we request
human rights institutions to see what their inaction over LTTE crimes
has resulted in.
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