LTTE Child soldier
Rajendran Dayanandan aged 16 who was arrested in Kurukuttimurippukulam North of Puliyankulam is a young boy born in Muttur in theTrincomalee District to a family of seven. The statement made by him is as follows. “I am a boy who has never gone to school.
About three months back when I went to buy bread, members of the LTTE approached me and forcefully took me into a camp. Although a 3-month training is given to the newly recruited cadres, I was only given one months training.
Amnesty International Index 04/01/98extract from page 38Recruitment as Fighters Fifteen year old Raja went to the Teaching Hospital in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, complaining of insomnia, aggressive outbursts and irrational abnormal behaviour in late 1994. He had joined the LTTE at the age of 11 and underwent extensive training. He told doctors that after one attack where he lost many friends he was shown a videos of dead women and children and told that his enemies had done this. Soon afterwards he was involved in attacks on several Muslim villages near Batticaloa. When recounting one attack, he described how he held a child by the legs and bashed its head against a wall and how he enjoyed hearing the mother’s screaming. He said they deserved to die.
After I was forcibly taken to the organisation my father visited me and wanted to take me home. But when I informed the leader of the camp Karthikaran, he arrested me. The senior members of the camp never gave us sufficient food and clothing. They used to send us to the front and when we refuse we were assaulted. After the training I was sent on a recee mission with only one grenade where I was arrested by the Army.”
When spoke to him he further said, ” I had no intention of joining the organisation. But I was taken forcibly. There are lot of children like me who are being trained in the moment and they too are undergoing the same difficulties”. He also said that “I do not want to go back to the organisation but if I am given a chance, I will go home. I hope the Security Forces will put an end to this war and rescue all the children who are being forcefully trained and put to the front. We only want peace and harmony. We do not want the LTTE. I humbly request all the youth not to join or get caught to the LTTE. From the day I was arrested by the army they have treated me and looked after me very well”. It is observed child abuse in the LTTE organisation in continuing rapidly by recruiting children forcibly to put them in the war zone.