Former LTTE militant Vinayagamorrthy Muralitharan alias Karuna Amman has told a Tamil radio station that there were no child soldiers in the LTTE, Ceylon Today newspaper reported.
He was questioned about the LTTE recruitment of child soldiers that has been mentioned in the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) report.
“There is no history of the LTTE recruiting child soldiers,” he said, adding that one of the slain LTTE Leader V. Prabhakaran’s rules was not to recruit child soldiers and that all the cadres had to be above 18 years of age. “That was strictly followed by the Leader.”
According to Karuna, some of the photos circulating in the Media showing children clad in LTTE uniform were photos taken from some stage plays. “Some people dressed their children for dramas and plays and those are not real,” he added.
He pointed out that when he fell out with Prabhakaran, he did not allow his 6,000 odd troops to stay on with the LTTE, instead, he allowed them to return to their homes. “After the split, nearly 60 of those boys and girls in the East were killed by the LTTE and that was foolish,” he added.
(Sulochana Ramiah, Ceylon Today Newspaper)
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