10-11-2003, 06:40 AM
HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP SAYS UNICEF REHABILITATION CENTER COULD BE USED BY THE TERRORISTS TO SEND SPIES AND ASSASINS IN TO SOCIETY
By Walter Jayawardhana reporting from Los Angeles
The University Teachers for Human Rights-Jaffna (UTHR-J), a leading human rights organization among Sri Lanka Tamils charged that the UNICEF funded children's rehabilitation centers could be used by a terrorist group to unleash terror by releasing selected children as spies and assassins in to the society.
The human rights group, led by Tamil academics, with long experience about terrorism associated with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), especially against the Tamils themselves, said in its 17th Special Report issued October 7 that the rehabilitation centers built with millions of dollars supplied by the United Nation's Children's Fund could be possibly used by the terrorist group to further advance its terror by releasing selected youth into society … to act as spies and assassins.
Speaking through experience the human rights group said, Where there is opportunity the LTTE has no inhibitions.
In a deal described as scandalous the United Nations Children's Fund manages the rehabilitation centers with an organization called Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) an arm of the very terrorist group, the LTTE, who continues to abduct children to be conscripted in their guerilla army. The rehabilitation centers are expected to rehabilitate such military trained children abducted by the terrorist group from their schools and homes before being released to the parents.
The UTHR-J in its report said, there is the real possibility that the LTTE would further advance its terror by releasing selected youth into society through these transit centers to act as spies and assassins. Where there is opportunity the LTTE has no inhibitions.
Even without other benefits from abducting children, it had become good business for the terrorist group to continue doing so to earn hard foreign currency , other critics have charged, describing the rehabilitation program as an incentive to continue the crime.
Attacking the plan of Ted Chaliban, the local head of the UNICEF in Colombo, the Special Report of the UTHR-J said, UNICEF's Action Plan: Addressing the needs and care for the children in the North East affected by war has come under considerable comment and criticism in the media. Portions of the agreement reads remarkably like an LTTE propaganda piece, punctuated by practical input from UNICEF. It is not surprising. International NGOs, besides other agencies have been encouraged by the international community to engage with the LTTE as virtually a parallel state. The result has been a war of nerves paralleling the disastrous progress of the peace process. The LTTE came on top by effectively telling the agencies, If you want to be in business accept our terms. Once the majority kowtowed, the exceptions felt the sting of the TRO police. The TRO the Tamil Refugee Organization is UNICEF's partner in the Action Plan.
We deal with some of the remarks made by UNICEF's country director Ted Chaiban, responding to many of the criticisms in a television interview with Frederica Jansz on 18th August 2003. On the question of why situate the centres in LTTE-controlled areas rather than government controlled areas where many of the parents will have easier access to their children and where centres suitable for the care of such children already exist, Chaiban's answer was that this was a process. Without a process, he said, whatever the protestations made, the children would not come back. Your best chance of getting your child is to go through this process, he added, or you don't get your child back. Although Chaiban did not use the word, a member of his staff spoke of compromise in private with reference to the Action Plan.
As for what goes on at the transit centres, Chaiban said that UNICEF staff would be joint supervisors. On ensuring that the LTTE does not take back children returned to their homes, Chaiban said that UNICEF has limited staff, but the children would have regular visits from government child probation officers.
Anyone familiar with the North-East would know instantly that this exercise is flawed. The presence of UNICEF staff at a transit centre in an LTTE-controlled area means very little. It is the TRO staff who would exercise real control. After all, INGO (International NGO) staff operating in the LTTE-controlled areas know well that if they visit a village, LTTE intelligence would come shortly after they left, to inquire who said what. Further, under the present conditions of terror, government child probation officers could hardly report anything adverse to the LTTE.
More than anything that Chaiban was asked, there is the real possibility that the LTTE would further advance its terror by releasing selected youth into society through these transit centres to act as spies and assassins. Where there is opportunity the LTTE has no inhibitions.
Chaliban's defense of the UNICEF's process is rather like the semi-official Norwegian defense of another process the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). One of its controversial features is the free movement of (on paper) unarmed LTTE cadres in government-controlled areas. We are told: Peace needs a process: The MoU is something both sides have negotiated, agreed to and signed. Your best chance for peace is to go through the process. Otherwise you will not have peace.Coincidence?
With most organizations that have a little sense of shame, the compromises of UNICEF and other INGOs would be relatively harmless. But with the LTTE, before they quite realized where they were going, it had made a significant start towards making them partners in crime.
The UTHR(J) charged that the notorious intelligence services of the LTTE , who were capable of the assassination of the former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in India under the leadership of Pottuamman are currently roaming Tamil villages collecting information about individuals responsible for releasing data about abducted children: As for the children, LTTE intelligence operatives and their agents move among the people questioning them on what they know about the children being taken, whether they are being taken by force, who said what and so on. Things are far worse than they were early this year. The UNICEF's attempts to deal with the problem have been dictated by the international community's ill-starred approach to the present peace process, along with unhelpful euphemisms.
The UTHR(J) report said contrary to the agreement signed with the UNICEF the LTTE has intensified its child abductions: What in our judgment was the most important context behind the incident has not even been reported. Contrary to all expectations and the deal signed with the UNICEF, the LTTE has once again intensified its conscription programme. Reports of conscription in significant numbers in the area came from Karaitivu, Veeramunai, Akkaraipattu, Thambiluvil and Vinayagapuram since mid-August. The LTTE's renewed insistence was one child per family.
Veeramunai, the sizeable Tamil village closest to the scene of the two murders above was visited by the LTTE on 15th August. It forcibly took away 14 youths. Karaitivu and Mandur are quite close and several Tamil villages lie in Sammanthurai West AGA Division. Resistance though passive was intense and people were hiding their children or sending them out. The Muslims were killed two days after the LTTE visited Veeramunai (which is incidentally under government control!) and it came back to Veeramunai a week later on the 24th and took away at least 5 persons. A Muslim backlash was useful and contriving one was not out of character with the LTTE's record.
http://www.go2lanka.com/stories/091003b.html
By Walter Jayawardhana reporting from Los Angeles
The University Teachers for Human Rights-Jaffna (UTHR-J), a leading human rights organization among Sri Lanka Tamils charged that the UNICEF funded children's rehabilitation centers could be used by a terrorist group to unleash terror by releasing selected children as spies and assassins in to the society.
The human rights group, led by Tamil academics, with long experience about terrorism associated with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), especially against the Tamils themselves, said in its 17th Special Report issued October 7 that the rehabilitation centers built with millions of dollars supplied by the United Nation's Children's Fund could be possibly used by the terrorist group to further advance its terror by releasing selected youth into society … to act as spies and assassins.
Speaking through experience the human rights group said, Where there is opportunity the LTTE has no inhibitions.
In a deal described as scandalous the United Nations Children's Fund manages the rehabilitation centers with an organization called Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) an arm of the very terrorist group, the LTTE, who continues to abduct children to be conscripted in their guerilla army. The rehabilitation centers are expected to rehabilitate such military trained children abducted by the terrorist group from their schools and homes before being released to the parents.
The UTHR-J in its report said, there is the real possibility that the LTTE would further advance its terror by releasing selected youth into society through these transit centers to act as spies and assassins. Where there is opportunity the LTTE has no inhibitions.
Even without other benefits from abducting children, it had become good business for the terrorist group to continue doing so to earn hard foreign currency , other critics have charged, describing the rehabilitation program as an incentive to continue the crime.
Attacking the plan of Ted Chaliban, the local head of the UNICEF in Colombo, the Special Report of the UTHR-J said, UNICEF's Action Plan: Addressing the needs and care for the children in the North East affected by war has come under considerable comment and criticism in the media. Portions of the agreement reads remarkably like an LTTE propaganda piece, punctuated by practical input from UNICEF. It is not surprising. International NGOs, besides other agencies have been encouraged by the international community to engage with the LTTE as virtually a parallel state. The result has been a war of nerves paralleling the disastrous progress of the peace process. The LTTE came on top by effectively telling the agencies, If you want to be in business accept our terms. Once the majority kowtowed, the exceptions felt the sting of the TRO police. The TRO the Tamil Refugee Organization is UNICEF's partner in the Action Plan.
We deal with some of the remarks made by UNICEF's country director Ted Chaiban, responding to many of the criticisms in a television interview with Frederica Jansz on 18th August 2003. On the question of why situate the centres in LTTE-controlled areas rather than government controlled areas where many of the parents will have easier access to their children and where centres suitable for the care of such children already exist, Chaiban's answer was that this was a process. Without a process, he said, whatever the protestations made, the children would not come back. Your best chance of getting your child is to go through this process, he added, or you don't get your child back. Although Chaiban did not use the word, a member of his staff spoke of compromise in private with reference to the Action Plan.
As for what goes on at the transit centres, Chaiban said that UNICEF staff would be joint supervisors. On ensuring that the LTTE does not take back children returned to their homes, Chaiban said that UNICEF has limited staff, but the children would have regular visits from government child probation officers.
Anyone familiar with the North-East would know instantly that this exercise is flawed. The presence of UNICEF staff at a transit centre in an LTTE-controlled area means very little. It is the TRO staff who would exercise real control. After all, INGO (International NGO) staff operating in the LTTE-controlled areas know well that if they visit a village, LTTE intelligence would come shortly after they left, to inquire who said what. Further, under the present conditions of terror, government child probation officers could hardly report anything adverse to the LTTE.
More than anything that Chaiban was asked, there is the real possibility that the LTTE would further advance its terror by releasing selected youth into society through these transit centres to act as spies and assassins. Where there is opportunity the LTTE has no inhibitions.
Chaliban's defense of the UNICEF's process is rather like the semi-official Norwegian defense of another process the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). One of its controversial features is the free movement of (on paper) unarmed LTTE cadres in government-controlled areas. We are told: Peace needs a process: The MoU is something both sides have negotiated, agreed to and signed. Your best chance for peace is to go through the process. Otherwise you will not have peace.Coincidence?
With most organizations that have a little sense of shame, the compromises of UNICEF and other INGOs would be relatively harmless. But with the LTTE, before they quite realized where they were going, it had made a significant start towards making them partners in crime.
The UTHR(J) charged that the notorious intelligence services of the LTTE , who were capable of the assassination of the former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in India under the leadership of Pottuamman are currently roaming Tamil villages collecting information about individuals responsible for releasing data about abducted children: As for the children, LTTE intelligence operatives and their agents move among the people questioning them on what they know about the children being taken, whether they are being taken by force, who said what and so on. Things are far worse than they were early this year. The UNICEF's attempts to deal with the problem have been dictated by the international community's ill-starred approach to the present peace process, along with unhelpful euphemisms.
The UTHR(J) report said contrary to the agreement signed with the UNICEF the LTTE has intensified its child abductions: What in our judgment was the most important context behind the incident has not even been reported. Contrary to all expectations and the deal signed with the UNICEF, the LTTE has once again intensified its conscription programme. Reports of conscription in significant numbers in the area came from Karaitivu, Veeramunai, Akkaraipattu, Thambiluvil and Vinayagapuram since mid-August. The LTTE's renewed insistence was one child per family.
Veeramunai, the sizeable Tamil village closest to the scene of the two murders above was visited by the LTTE on 15th August. It forcibly took away 14 youths. Karaitivu and Mandur are quite close and several Tamil villages lie in Sammanthurai West AGA Division. Resistance though passive was intense and people were hiding their children or sending them out. The Muslims were killed two days after the LTTE visited Veeramunai (which is incidentally under government control!) and it came back to Veeramunai a week later on the 24th and took away at least 5 persons. A Muslim backlash was useful and contriving one was not out of character with the LTTE's record.
http://www.go2lanka.com/stories/091003b.html
Truth 'll prevail