UNICEF has reported more than 4700 cases of recruitment and re-recruitment of children by the LTTE: by force, abducting children while on their way to school or during religious festivals. UNICEF is also on record as having stated that the LTTE recruited 40 children from camps set up for people affected by the December 26 tsunami. The UN Secretary General’s report to the Security Council, highlights the cases reported by UNICEF. The report recommends “targeted and concrete measures” against the armed groups - including the LTTE – which is systematically using child soldiers. Among the proposed sanctions in the SG’s report are: “imposition of travel restrictions on leaders and their exclusion from any governance structures and amnesty provisions, the imposition of arms embargoes, a ban on military assistance and restrictions on the flow of resources to the parties concerned.”

Observers say that it is ironical that an armed group, against which the Security Council is considering punitive action, is virtually making demands from the United Nations and laying down conditions if it is to stop child recruitment. All this, despite pledges made to Olara Otunnu during his Sri Lanka visit in 1998, and an Action Plan agreed to with UNICEF in 2003 covering under-age recruitment. However, Diplomatic sources say that the UN should not even consider a demand to engage in discussions with an armed group facing sanctions, thus undermining action by the Security Council to punish them, is unprecedented and sinister. The question also arises as to whether the UN has a mandate to engage in a dialogue with an armed group which is yet to renounce violence and which is listed or banned as a terrorist group in several of its members states. Published: Thu Mar 3 07:34:01 EST 2005

Two men - one a former member of a Tamil militant group opposed to the rebels and the other a civilian - had claimed they were held against their will and tortured at the Tigers' political office in Vavuniya town, 210 kilometers (130 miles) north of Colombo. The other man is a civilian.

``Torture is always a serious allegation and we are inquiring into the complaint,'' said monitoring group spokeswoman Helen Olafsdottir. ``There were visible bruises on the men that could have stemmed from torture.''

The rebels deny the charges.

Vavuniya is the last government-held town before Tiger territory begins in the northern area. Police in Vavuniya have provided 24-hour security for the cease-fire monitors after they complained that rebels manhandled them while they were investigating the torture complaints.

``The monitors made a written request for protection, complaining that they were threatened and forcibly chased away by the Tigers,'' said the area's police chief, Abeysinghe Bandara.

The guerrillas began fighting in 1983 to carve out an independent homeland for the island's 3.2 million ethnic minority Tamils, who claim discrimination by the majority Sinhalese.

Nearly 65,000 people were killed in the conflict before a Norway-brokered truce in February 2002. Peace talks broke down in April 2003 amid rebel demands for wide autonomy in the Tamil-dominated north and east.

The European monitors are stationed in both government and rebel-held territories.

Olafsdottir played down the reported incident involving the monitors' security, saying the monitors placed more importance on the torture complaints.

Months after the truce was signed, Tamil Tigers blew up of one their own ships, fearing detection of alleged weapons they were trying to smuggle in. Two European monitors on board narrowly escaped death by jumping into the sea. Published: Thu Mar 3 04:48:21 EST 2005