Tigers recruit child soldiers again - UN

COLOMBO, May 6 (Reuters) - The LTTE had recruited children in the past few days, UN officials said on Thursday, raising fears of a fresh recruitment drive just weeks after their biggest yet child demobilisation.

The United Nations Children’s Fund did not know the ages of the recruits, but the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have in past used children as young as 10 in their decades-long fight for a separate state for the minority Tamil community.

"We have verified four children have been recruited and we’ve taken in up with the LTTE, who say they are investigating," said UNICEF spokesman Geoffrey Keele.

He said all four were from the northern Vavuniya region, about 220 km (140 miles) from the capital Colombo.

The use of child soldiers is considered a benchmark of the Tigers’ sincerity in peace efforts with the government, but a two-year ceasefire has been marred by persistent reports of underage recruitment.

"We don’t have specific information, but we have noticed there is a child recruitment campaign on and it seems to be mostly in Vavuniya," said Agnes Bragadottir of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, which oversees a Norwegian-brokered truce in the islanddecades-old civil war.

The LTTE formally released 300 child soldiers to UNICEF and another 750 returned to their villages on their own late last month, after the Tigers defeated a rival rebel faction.

Human rights groups welcomed the mass release, but expressed concerns there could be re-recruitment.