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Top UNICEF official to meet Tamil rebels amid child recruitment charges
Associated Press,
Fri January 24, 2003 06:41 EST .
- - COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - (AP) The top official from the U.N. Children's Fund will visit Sri Lanka - next week to discuss issues affecting children, amid allegations that Tamil Tiger rebels continue to recruit child soldiers. UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy will visit the island Thursday, the agency said in a statement. She will hold meetings with Tamil Tiger rebels and the Sri Lankan government on ``the impact of the armed conflict on children and the protection of children,'' the statement said. A child-rights organization, Save the Children Norway, has estimated that the guerrillas have used 2,000 to 4,000 children as soldiers during the 19-year war with the Sri Lankan military that has killed more than 64,000 people. The fighting stopped after the two sides signed a Norwegian-brokered cease-fire, but truce monitors and human rights groups continue to accuse the rebels of recruiting children. The Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam said in November that they had stopped recruiting children and had already sent a number of children home. But the allegations have continued. Bellamy also will visit key child protection institutions in the capital Colombo, the statement said. Earlier this month, UNICEF launched a campaign to bring thousands of children, including those recruited by the rebels, back to school.
Published: Fri Jan 24 10:51:25 EST 2003
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