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Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka urges UN Working Group to call upon the LTTE to forthwith release all child combatants

Attachments

Ambassador Prasad Kariyawasam Sri Lanka's Permanent Representative to the United Nations at the Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict urged the Working Group to call upon the LTTE to forthwith release all child combatants within the ranks of the LTTE, discharge combatants recruited to the LTTE when they were children and terminate compulsory combat and weapons training provided to school children.

Further Ambassador Kariyawasam said 'Since independence 60 years ago, all successive governments in Sri Lanka have been committed towards creating a protective environment for children to live in dignity and to enjoy their rights with care and support of their families. The blueprint for peace and development in Sri Lanka initiated by the Government of His Excellency President Mahinda Rajapaksa also demonstrates this commitment by advancing child-centered social development programmes, further augmenting free healthcare, and free education that has been the hallmark of Sri Lanka's child welfare policies for long years'.

(Full statement is attached)