துணை இராணுவக் குழுவினருக்கு உதவுவதை உடன் நிறுத்த வேண்டும்: மனித உரிமை கண்காணிப்பு அமைப்பு

[செவ்வாய்க்கிழமை, 28 நவம்பர் 2006, 19:29 ஈழம்] [க.நித்தியா]

சிறார்களையும் இளைஞர்களையும் கடத்துவதற்கு துணை இராணுவக் குழுவான கருணா குழுவுக்கு உதவுவதை சிறிலங்காப் படையினர் உடனடியாக நிறுத்த வேண்டும் என்று ஹியுமன் றைட் வோட்ச் அமைப்பான மனித உரிமை கண்காணிப்பு அமைப்பு கூறியுள்ளது.

கடத்தப்பட்டவர்களை அவர்களது குடும்பத்தினரிடம் பாதுகாப்பாகக் கொண்டு சேர்ப்பதற்கு படையினர் உதவ வேண்டும் என்று மனித உரிமை கண்காணிப்பு அமைப்பு இன்று செவ்வாய்க்கிழமை தெரிவித்தது.

சிறார்களைக் கடத்துவதில் சிறிலங்கா இராணுவமும் காவல்துறையினரும் உடந்தையாக செயற்பட்டுள்ளனர். சில சமயங்களில் கருணா குழுவுடன் நேரடியாக இணைந்து செயற்பட்டுள்ளனர் என்று அடுத்த மாதம் வெளியிடவுள்ள அதன் அறிக்கை தெரிவிக்கிறது.

கருணா குழுவினர் சிறார்களையும் இளைஞர்களையும் கடத்துவதற்கு சிறிலங்கா இராணுவம் உதவுவதாக எங்களுக்குத் உறுதியான ஆதாரங்கள் கிடைத்துள்ளன என்று அமைப்பின் சிறார் உரிமைக்கான சட்டவல்லுநர் ஜோ பெக்கர் கூறியுள்ளார்.

சிறிலங்கா அரசாங்கம் சிறார்கள் கடத்தப்படுவதைத் தடுத்து உடற்குறையுள்ள சிறார்கள் அவர்கள் வீடுகளுக்குச் செல்ல உதவ வேண்டும்.

கருணா குழுவின் நடவடிக்கைகள் பற்றி சிறிலங்கா அரசாங்கத்துக்கு கடந்த ஜூன் மாதத்தில் இருந்து அல்லது அதற்கு முன்னதாகவே தெரிந்திருக்கிறது. ஆனால் அதனைத் தடுக்க அரசாங்கம் தவறிவிட்டது. எந்தவித முயற்சிகளை மேற்கொள்ளவில்லை என்றும் அவர் சொன்னார்.

சிறிலங்கா அரசாங்கத்துக்குத் தெரியாமல் கருணா குழுவினர் வாகனங்களில் குழந்தைகளை அடைத்து வீதி வழியாகக் கடத்திச் செல்ல வழியே இல்லை என்று அவர் சாடியுள்ளார்.

மனித உரிமை கண்காணிப்புக் குழு, சிறிலங்கா அரசாங்கக் கட்டுப்பாட்டுப் பகுதியில் நிகழ்ந்த 20-க்கும் மேற்பட்ட சிறார் கடத்தல் சம்பவங்களை சாட்சிகளிடமும் பெற்றோரிடமும் விசாரணை செய்து அறிக்கை தயாரித்துள்ளது.

-புதினம்

Rights group criticises S.Lanka over child soldiers

COLOMBO (Reuters) - An international rights group said on Tuesday it had clear evidence that Sri Lankan troops were helping to abduct children as soldiers for a group of renegades to battle Tamil Tiger rebels.

The allegation by U.S.-based Human Rights Watch came after a U.N. envoy had also accused elements of the military of helping to abduct children as soldiers for a band of breakaway rebels led by former top Tiger commander Colonel Karuna.

"We have clear and compelling evidence that government forces are helping Karuna forces abduct boys and young men," Jo Becker, children's rights advocate at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement issued in New York.

"The government should stop the abductions and help kidnapped children go home."

President Mahinda Rajapakse's government earlier this month dismissed similar findings by Allan Rock, special adviser to the U.N. Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict in Sri Lanka, accusing him of misleading financial donors.

"Official surprise at Ambassador Rock's allegations is not genuine," Becker said. "The government has known about Karuna abductions at least since June, if not earlier, and it has failed to stop the kidnappings or investigate the culprits."

Government defence spokesman and cabinet minister Keheliya Rambukwella again denied the latest allegation.

"There is no involvement," he said.

"Human Rights Watch should give us this credible evidence that they're talking of. Once we have that, we can pursue it," he added. "We will certainly take necessary action to control it and completely take the perpetrators to justice."

UNICEF lists around 1,600 outstanding cases of under-age recruitment by the Tigers, around 650 of which are still under the age of 18. The agency also lists over 140 outstanding cases of under-age recruitment by the Karuna group.

Fierce fighting between government troops and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has killed around 3,000 civilians, troops and rebels so far this year.

On Monday, the rebels declared they were resuming their independence struggle, which analysts say means Sri Lanka should brace for an escalation in a conflict that has killed more than 67,000 people since 1983.

http://in.today.reuters.com/news/newsArtic...ia-278074-1.xml

சிறிலங்கா அரசு கருணா படையினரால் சிறுவர்கள் கடத்தப்படுவதை தடுக்கவேண்டும் -மனித உரிமைகள் குழு

Report backs Rock on child soldiers

Government colluding in abduction of children, Human Rights Watch finds

Nov. 29, 2006. 05:53 AM

OLIVIA WARD

STAFF REPORTER

There is "clear and compelling evidence" that Sri Lankan government forces are helping guerrillas to kidnap boys and young men to turn them into child soldiers, says Human Rights Watch.

And, the New York-based rights organization says, the conclusions confirm findings earlier this month by Canada's Allan Rock, a United Nations special adviser on children and armed conflict.

"We heard essentially the same testimony that Ambassador Rock reported," said Jo Becker, Human Rights Watch's children's rights advocate. "The police and the military are colluding with (the paramilitary rebel faction) Karuna."

The rights watchdog called for the security forces to "immediately stop assisting abductions ... and help those abducted return safely to their families."

The group's full report will be published in December, Becker said. And, she added, statements made to investigators left no doubt about government collusion: "Families testified that they had seen their children in the offices of Karuna, which were guarded by the Sri Lankan police. How can you take children to those offices without government knowledge?"

During three weeks in October, Human Rights Watch investigated more than 20 child abduction cases, interviewing witnesses and parents of abducted children in government-controlled areas.

The Karuna group is headed by Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan, a former Tamil Tiger commander now working with the government. The group is linked with the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal political party.

In some places, the Human Rights Watch statement said, the political offices where kidnapped children were brought were "less than 100 metres from a Sri Lankan military camp," too close for government forces not to see them.

Witnesses said that some children had travelled through more than 10 police and military checkpoints to reach the camps where they were held.

Violence has spiralled in Sri Lanka as a four-year-old truce collapsed, and this week Tamil Tiger rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran renewed his call for an independent Tamil nation, as hopes were dashed for a negotiated solution to the bloody conflict. In spite of denials by government and rebels, recruitment of child soldiers continues on both sides.

The Tigers have been reprimanded for years for forcing children to fight. But human rights advocates fear the Karuna recruitment is taking the conflict to new levels of violence.

"The government has known about Karuna child abductions since at least June 2006," Human Rights Watch said, adding that UNICEF at that time issued a public appeal to protect children from recruitment and investigate abductions.

In July, a group of more than 40 mothers of abducted children also filed a detailed petition to the chief justice of the Sri Lankan Supreme Court, the group said.

The Sri Lankan military protested Rock's report issued earlier this month, saying its forces had no connection with child abduction. But the government promised to investigate cases of child recruitment, and Karuna's political party said it would release any under-age fighters in its ranks and help to trace the whereabouts of any whose kidnappings have been reported to UNICEF.

Becker said she was "not aware of any action that has been taken to date to find these children, or any move by the government to intervene."

"Official surprise at Ambassador Rock's allegations is not genuine," she charged. "The government had known about the abductions ... and it has failed to stop the kidnappings or investigate the culprits."

But, she said, it was a hopeful sign that during a visit with Rock, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa made a pledge to investigate.

-Toronto Star