One of the child soldiers who surrendered, Sasi Kanakariga Pillai says; "We used to go to school, but were always in hiding. If the LTTE found out that we were at home they would catch us. They would give some training and deploy us as LTTE fighters." LTTE forcefully recruited thousands of children like Sasi to bolster its strength.
"They caught me. I trained with them for two months. I managed to escape," he adds.
There are many such shocking revelations which have come to fore in the refugee camps where LTTE's forced recruits and their parents are taking shelter.
They are happy to have escaped the clutches of the Tigers.
Principal Bhartiya Vidyalaya Kilinochchi, Rajendra says: "I am a principal in a school where we lost 100 students in the war. They were recruited by the LTTE and used in the war.
I also ran away on March 18 at midnight to save my 18-year-old daughter.
If I was there, they would have taken her away.
I saw most of the children being taken away by the LTTE."
Visuals of the LTTE stealing and hoarding UN supplies is now telling the world how ruthless this terrorist group was to its own people as the Tamil civilians who escaped the fury of the war tell tales of the atrocities meted out to them by the Tigers.
Assistant Director of Eduction in Mullaitivu, K Selvarasan says: "I think they are in a small area. I think they will be toothless soon. They have to run away to escape. But people are not with that side. For the past few months, sugar was Rs. 1,000 per kg and rice was Rs. 5,00 per kg. People died of poverty and hunger because they could not purchase anything."
It was known for three decades that the LTTE recruited child soldiers.
Source: Ministry of Defence, Public Security, Law & Order - Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka
Courtesy: Daily News
