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Some Tamil children rushing marriage to avoid rebel recruiters
Associated Press,
Wed February 5, 2003 02:00 EST .
KRISHAN FRANCIS - Associated Press Writer - KALKUDAH, Sri Lanka - (AP) In this village of coconut groves and modest brick-and-clay homes, parents are rushing to marry off their children. Arjun Vijayakumar, 19, a former rebel, said children as young as 15 are getting married in the northeast, the traditional home of the island's Tamil minority. The legal marriage age in Sri Lanka - is 18. ``There is no registration. The bride and the groom are brought together and it is made sure that the village elders and the Tigers know about it,'' said Vijayakumar. The newlyweds, like most people in Tamil country, won't talk to reporters, saying they fear rebel reprisals. Vijayakumar, in a rare interview, said he was taken by the rebels at age 9, escaped when he was 13 and joined a pro-government Tamil militia, which is now defunct under the cease-fire agreement. Human rights groups for years have accused the rebels of seizing children and property and demanding bribes. Kamalaruban, an LTT leader near the eastern coastal town Batticaloa, said the rebels still recruit, but ``We don't force anyone to join us or to give us money. We explain the historical background that led to our struggle and about our rights, and the people volunteer.'' Kamalaruban, who uses one name, said many youngsters who want to join the Tigers were victimized by the Sri Lankan army. But he said child volunteers are handed over to the European team monitoring the cease-fire. Rebels and the U.N. Children's Fund are to meet in Berlin this week to draw up a plan to rehabilitate child soldiers. UNICEF says it has received 730 reports of child recruitment by the rebels including 313 complaints since the cease-fire was signed a year ago. The rebels say they have released 350 children since November 2001. Nearly 65,000 people have died since 1983, when the rebels went to war claiming the 3.2 million Tamils face discrimination by the 14 million Sinhalese in education and jobs. The rebels wanted a separate homeland but now say they would settle for autonomy. Police reports obtained by The Associated Press reveal details of five recruits aged 15 to 20 who escaped from rebel camps and surrendered to government forces in December. Three of the boys were students who say they were abducted on their way to school last year after the cease-fire came into effect. Lasantha de Silva, a senior police officer in Batticaloa, said child abductions continue, but parents and relatives are afraid to talk. ``There have been instances when Tigers have entered homes and taken the father or the mother away,'' he said. An 18-year-old who gave his name as K. Bawa told the AP his family was chased away from their home in Kiran, another village north of Batticaloa, after he escaped from a rebel camp. He said a group of rebels abducted him last July, after threatening to imprison his father in an underground bunker. Bawa said rebels showed videos about their campaign to hundreds of young recruits, who would exercise in the morning, then train with weapons. Bawa said he escaped and walked through jungles for three days to reach home. In a nearby village, a young Tamil man who requested anonymity described seeing his distraught father drink pesticide after Tamil Tigers demanded his new tractor. Hundreds of angry neighbors surrounded the rebels, who left without the tractor, and the father survived, he said.
Published: Wed Feb 5 02:59:17 EST 2003
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