By Bandula Jayasekara

In the East parents are not taking any chances, many have stopped their children from going out and some have even stopped their children from going to school because of the fear of LTTE abducting their children, says CNN’s Colombo Correspondent Kasra Naji who toured Batticaloa this week.

In a special report filed from Batticaloa Naji says that the rebels have stepped up recruitment of children at a time when they have made a commitment to releasing their child soldiers. He reveals that the LTTE is abducting unsuspecting children at the rate of nearly two a day. A seventeen-year-old girl had told CNN that she was worried about her safety and her future. She had questioned, " What guarantee is there?" A sixteen-year-old boy had expressed his fears wanting to know how things could go on at the present rate. He had said he could not concentrate on his exams.

The principal of the government school Murugesu Thavarajah has been badly beaten up by unknown assailants a few days after the CNN interview.

American Jesuit Priest Father Harry Miller has told Naji that it is like an ogre that descends from the hills once in a while and takes children away. Describing the agony of the parents Miller says: "Each time, everybody hopes it is not their child, but some time or the other it would be the turn of their child".

CNN also reveals that the rebels expect Tamil families to contribute at least one son or daughter to the LTTE cause, a separate state.

Earlier this month, UNICEF led by its Colombo Representative Ted Chaiban set up transit camps with the LTTE to rehabilitate child soldiers. Chaiban’s move has come under heavy criticism for the UNICEF in this project has as its partner, the notorious LTTE front, the TRO. UNICEF’s arrangement with the LTTE has been opposed vehemently by the chairman of the National Child Protection Authority, Prof. Harendra de Silva. UNICEF has been silent on the latest development apart from issuing one statement.

The Island today reproduces the CNN special report in full in the Saturday Magazine.