Rajesh Sundaram: Is the Sri Lankan Government Helping in Recruitment of Child Soldiers ?

The UN says it is, the Nordic ceasefire monitors say it is and the people of Batticaloa say it is.
I met two families where boys aged 15 and 17 were abducted on the same day, some four weeks ago. The families were in the prayer room. They want their identities hidden for fear that their children will be harmed.

Both families say they have reason to believe that their children have been abducted by a pro-government, break away faction of the Tamil Tiger rebels known as the Karuna Group.
" It is the Karuna group that took my boy, he was returning from his tuition class in the evening when men in civils bundled my boy and his cousin into a waiting van and speed away. The army and police check posts in the area did nothing to stop the speeding car. We went to their political office and saw the foot ware of the boys outside the building. But they just asked us to go. They said they did not have our children. I have visited their main office in Batticaloa many times. But they just ask me to come back after a week." Says the mother one of the abducted boy.
" His father cannot work because he was shot in the shoulder some 5 years ago. He used to go fishing and was the only earning member of the family. He has been gone now for so many weeks. We will starve if he does not come back." says the mother of the other
According to the Nordic ceasefire monitors, over 300 children have been abducted over the past 3 months...most of them by the Karuna group.

"Yes we have seen indications that there is definitely some complacency involved on the part o security forces personnel, weather in turning a blind eye or in allowing a group to operate. That is the extent to which I mean...that is these things are definitely taking place." says a spokesperson for the ceasefire monitors.

Allen Rock a UN official first high lighted the situation in a report a few days ago. The ceasefire monitors immediately confirmed his findings.

Allen had said that elements of the Sri Lankan army and some police officials were helping this pro-government group abduct children for recruitment.
The government's initial response was to dismiss the charge. But now it says it will investigate if the UN and the ceasefire monitors gave it names of those who have been abducted.
" Allen Rock has attended a fund raiser for the Tamil tiger rebels when he was a minister in Canada. He was told by the Canadian intelligence that the Tamil cultural show he was going to was a fund raiser for the Tigers. But he still went. I am not saying that he is biased..but then facts are facts.' says a government spokesman.

On his part the Karuna group political head A .Pradeep calls it an international conspiracy to malign his group.

"The SLMM, ICRC and other agencies are always biased towards the Tigers. I agree there are abductions happening in Batticaloa, but all of these are being done by the tigers. We just get the blame. It is not fair." he says " we do not need children, we have enough adult fighters.'

But a propaganda video he gives me has visuals of child soldiers being trained at camps and also a picture of the group's leader Col. Karuna being followed by a heavily armed child soldier.