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Children seeing 'heat of battle' in Sri Lanka

Tuesday, 16 May 2000: UNICEF said today that children are "being forced to feel the heat of battle" in Sri Lanka, where fighting for the town of Jaffna over the last few days has been putting children and women at enormous risk.

"It is a matter of grave concern for us that children in northern Sri Lanka once again are experiencing the trauma of warfare and displacement," said Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of UNICEF.

Commenting on press reports that said that fighting was affecting areas in Jaffna where civilians are still present, Ms. Bellamy appealed to leaders on all sides of the conflict to view children as "zones of peace" and take all possible measures to protect them from the effects of the war. "Children are experiencing the heat of battle, both as victims and as combatants," she said.

Ms. Bellamy said that despite commitments by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) not to recruit children under 17 years old, the practice appeared to be continuing. UNICEF believes the children being used as combatants in Sri Lanka are mainly between the ages of 15 and 17.

She noted that just last week UNICEF had raised the issue of child soldiers in Sierra Leone. "It's a shame that we see these violations developing just when the world is pushing to end the practice of using children to fight wars," Ms. Bellamy said. She pointed out that UNICEF is taking part in an international conference on child soldiers this week in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Ms. Bellamy emphasized that she is equally alarmed by reports that government forces were restricting the supply of vaccines and drugs to children and families in LTTE-held areas of Sri Lanka.

"Children must not be used as instruments of war, as hostages of war, or as battlegrounds of war," she said. "Sri Lanka's future depends directly on how this generation treats the next. Right now, the outlook is not great."

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