'LTTE beat or shoot at Tamil parents, snatch 12 year olds' says London Guardian

(By: Walter Jayawardhana)

London's Guardian newspaper charged that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, now cornered in a five square kilometers in the North East of Sri Lanka forcibly make 12 year old children snatched from their parents, sometimes beating and shooting at them, to take guns and fight the Sri Lankan forces.

"Children as young as 12 being forcibly removed from families as Tamil Tigers make last stand against Sri Lankan forces," the newspaper said.

Guardian said children as young as 12 are being given guns and forced to fight on the frontline alongside desperate Tamil Tiger rebels cornered inside Sri Lanka's no-fire zone, quoting UN sources.

Those forcibly recruited included the 16-year-old daughter of a member of the UN staff, who had stayed inside the narrow strip of coast where the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are making their last stand. It added.

Gordon Weiss, the UN spokesman in Sri Lanka, said there had been credible reports of clashes between LTTE members and families on the beaches who had tried to prevent their children being taken. Some of those who resisted had been beaten or shot, he said. "They are sitting there on the sand and groups of armed LTTE come along and demand a member of the family joins them. They ask for one or two children and they are running around grabbing people," Weiss was quoted having said.

"They have been taking children as young as 12, handing them a gun and marching them off and putting them to work. They are not being seen again by their families." As the fighting intensifies, the LTTE is running short of experienced fighters and is relying once again on children to boost its numbers, the Guardian said.

Weiss said many children living in areas controlled by the LTTE before the latest offensive received military training as part of their schooling. He added that the 16-year-old UN family member had now managed to escape from the fighting