By Shamindra Ferdinando

President Chandrika Kumaratunga in New York for the UN General Assembly Special Session on Children on Wednesday briefed UN Secretary General Koffi Annan on the ongoing Norwegian-brokered peace process aimed at bringing the LTTE back to the negotiating table, a presidential spokesperson said yesterday.

"President Kumaratunga talked of the progress as well as problems relating to the process," the source said, adding that the meeting with the Secretary General took place soon after she delivered the opening address in which the president raised the problem of recruitment of children as combatants by the LTTE.

The LTTE continued to forcibly conscript children despite its assurance to UN Secretary General’s special envoy Olara Otunu in May 1998 that no one under 18 would be used in combat. Ironically the pledge was given by none other than the LTTE’s chief negotiator and political wing leader Thamilchelvam, the source said.

President Kumaratunga, on behalf of Premier Ranil Wickremesinghe’s government also signed the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, child prostitution and child pornography.

President Kumaratunga also held bilateral talks with Croatian President Stjepan Mesic.

The source said President Kumaratunga later participated in an interactive dialogue and discussion on the effects of war on the children. She took advantage of the opportunity to reiterate her concerns over the way the LTTE has been using children, some of them aged 10-11 years, as combatants.

Premier Ranil Wickremesinghe’s special envoy, Minister Milinda Moragoda on April 22 met with the UN Secretary General in New York where they discussed the Sri Lankan peace process.

Meanwhile, both the SLFP-led PA and the UNP-led United National Front (UNF) were seeking separate meetings with Indian Premier Atal Behari Vajpayee again to discuss the peace process, party sources said.

Premier Ranil Wickremesinghe who visited New Delhi soon after he assumed premiership last December to seek India’s support to the peace process, will be meeting Vajpayee in the second week of June, the sources said. It was not clear whether the premier would be seeking a meeting with Tamilnadu Chief Minister Jayaram Jayalalitha who has irked the LTTE leadership by calling on the government to force Sri Lanka to extradite to India LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran wanted in connection with Rajiv Gandhi assassination.

The PA delegation was to be led by Anura Bandaranaike.