Photo Credit: Refugees International/Eugene Carlson
01/10/2005

These children play near a Tamil camp just after the tsunami devastated the island of Sri Lanka.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, LTTE, have long been known for recruiting children to take up arms in their 22-year independence struggle against the Government of Sri Lanka. With a truce in early 2002, many hoped the illegal conscription of minors as child combatants would cease. In the wake of the tsunami, which devastated Tamil majority areas in northern and eastern Sri Lanka, new reports of abductions and missing children have reaffirmed concerns of international human rights organizations of continued recruitment.