LTTE hands over underage youths to parents in Akkaraipattu

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 September 2003, 03:41 GMT]
Two underage Tamil youths from the Periya Neelavanai area of Amparai district who wanted to join the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam were handed over to their parents by the LTTE in the presence of Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission officials Friday, sources in Amparai said.

The youths said they are studying in a school and voluntarily went to join the LTTE. However, since they have not reached the age of 18, the LTTE’s Amparai district deputy political head, Mr. Kuyilinpan, handed them over to their parents at a function held at the Akkaraipattu LTTE office at 3 pm Friday, sources said.

“Our struggle is based on some ideals. We will not act in any way to upset the current peace environment,” said Mr. Kuyilinpan. “We do not recruit any underage youths to our fighting cadres. We have recruited some youths in certain areas for political work, but we do not recruit underage youths or school going children. Today’s handing over of the two underage youths demonstrates our policy.”