Sri Lanka: The Return of Child Soldiers

Protective Accompaniment One morning a group of mothers came to the office of the Nonviolent Peaceforce (NP) in a city on the east coast of Sri Lanka. The night before, the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) had abducted their sons at a Hindu Temple Festival and the mothers were desperate to retrieve their children. The Unarmed Civilian practitioners helped the mothers locate the camp where the children had been taken; since NP’s regular strategy is to engage all conflict participants, NP staff had already had some communications with the LTTE. NP staff accompanied the mothers to the camp. When the mothers told the camp commanders that they wanted their sons, they were told to go away, but they held firm, backed up by the presence of UCP actors. The camp leaders then sent for their superiors to deal with the situation. Negotiations continued for 36 hours. NP members called in UNICEF to bring food for the mothers; that pushed the negotiations forward because UNICEF had secured commitments in the past from this faction not to recruit children. Finally, the 26 boys were released (with bus fare!) and they returned home.

Subsequently, the LTTE issued a press release stating that 26 boys had run away from home and had come to their camp wanting to join up, but they had sent the boys away since they don’t use children as soldiers.