Thereafter, his father sent him to an area controlled by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

For over two decades, Sri Lanka has been under sustained assault by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), an armed group that employs brutal methods and suicide bombings in its campaign of terror to obtain a separate State.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has been listed in Annex II of the report owing to the fact that the LTTE has for many years been engaged in recruiting children for armed combat.

It was reported that the above mentioned 13 persons are being kept in detention in Wellikadai Prison in Colombo. All these persons were arrested on ethnic grounds, i.e. for the simple fact of being ethnic Tamils, and under suspicion of involvement with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the main armed opposition group.

He had the opportunity to meet with two senior representatives appointed by the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), V. Prabhakaran, Mr. Thamilselvan, Head of the Political Section, and Mr. Balasingham, Political Adviser.

In the north east, the persons most often reported detained and missing were young Tamil men accused or suspected of belonging to, collaborating with, aiding or sympathizing with LTTE.

Those responsible reportedly include all branches of the security forces, Muslim and Sinhalese home guards and armed Tamil groups opposed to LTTE.

145. Since April 1995, there has not been any voluntary repatriation movements of Sri Lankan Tamils from India due to the breakdown of peace talks and the resumption of the conflict between the Sri Lankan military and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

440. The Special Rapporteur also received reports informing him of killings of civilians by LTTE members.

With the support of a broad multi ethnic coalition of parties, I proceeded to talk with the rebel armed group  the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)  about ending the conflict, and discussed with all the parties in parliament a new, more inclusive, political Constitution that would share power with all communities.

319. Cases reported to have occurred since 11 June 1990, the date of resumption of hostilities by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), have taken place primarily in the Eastern and North Eastern Provinces of the country.

439. A series of reports regarding violations of the right to life committed in the context of the armed conflict between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelan (LTTE) continued to be received by the Special Rapporteur during 1996.

While he recognizes the difficult circumstances arising from the situation of conflict between the Government and LTTE, he urgently calls upon the parties to the conflict to comply with international humanitarian and human rights standards.

321. The majority of the newly reported cases occurred between mid 1995 and early 1996 following the resumption of hostilities between government forces and LTTE, and concerned young Tamil men, many of them poor farm labourers, fishermen or students from Trincomalee, Batticaloa, Colombo and Jafna.

In particular, it was brought to the attention of the Special Rapporteur that large numbers of civilians had been killed in military operations against LTTE on the Jaffna Peninsula, in violation of international humanitarian law and internationally recognized human rights norms.

451. Even though the Special Rapporteur does not undertake any action in that respect, he is equally concerned about the human rights abuses committed by LTTE, including deliberate killings of civilians.

The armed group LTTE, in gross violation of its commitments, continues such recruitment.

In this connection, he urged the LTTE leadership to make a public commitment to respect the Convention.

442. In regard to the following persons the Government responded that they had been killed in the context of armed confrontations between LTTE and the security forces Raveendiran Ragunathan, not as alleged Ravichandran Kuganathan, Rajalingam Mariyandas, Nadarajah, Kanapathipillai Ravichandran and Mylvaganam Amirthalingam.

Nevertheless, victory over the Tigers need not rule out some form of decentralization that guarantees the Tamils some political say, so long as a degree of local autonomy does not destroy Sri Lanka s unity. The alternative to such a political compromise may be a return to the tragic and bloody secessionist course that the Tigers sought for so long.

Taming the Tigers

However, two and a half years ago, the LTTE walked away from the peace talks for the sixth time in 18 years.

Emil Hupka.

Sri Lanka was of the opinion that the recruitment of children by the armed group, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, consisted of four grave violations, namely attacks against schools and civilian centres abduction of children denial of humanitarian access for children and the use of children in armed conflict.

Tyranny is fiercer than a tiger.

He then learned that his father had been detained in Jaffna by LTTE and later killed.

But if Sri Lanka s President Mahinda Rajapaksa wants to eliminate the spirit of Tamil separatism, he must emulate Singh s culture of political moderation. Rajapaksa was wise to speak a few words in Tamil while announcing the victory over the Tigers.

Emil Hupka. Heard of him?

According to the Government, the three missing men were believed to have joined LTTE.

Tamil

Tamil

Sinhala Tamil

Tamil

He was thereupon forced to undertake three months' training with LTTE assisting those wounded on the battlefield.

Tamil

Tamil

Terminal

Tamil Literature

Tamil Drama.

He was encouraged by the LTTE readiness to have its cadres receive information and instruction on the Convention.

Tamil

In that action plan, the LTTE agreed to halt recruitment of children and release all children within its ranks.

The LTTE leadership made the commitment that the movement of displaced populations who wanted to return to areas now under government control would not be impeded.

The religious and ethnic passions of the Sinhalese were encouraged during the final, bloody push that ended Sri Lanka s quarter century of civil war with the Tamil Tigers in 2009. But instead of seeking reconciliation with the Tamils following their defeat, then President Mahinda Rajapaksa continued to play on ethnic hatred as he subverted Sri Lanka s democracy.

Internal conflicts that end not with mutual deadlock but with an overwhelming victory by one of the parties hardly ever produce diplomatic solutions. Long years of mediation and endless peace proposals in the Sri Lanka conflict failed to end the war and the devastation of entire Tamil communities.