The army warns of a major LTTE recruitment campaign targeting tsunami orphans, particularly at makeshift tsunami welfare centres in the northern and eastern provinces.

"They have begun taking orphans to their camps," a senior officer, stationed in the east, said. But they hadn’t been able to intensify their campaign as police and security forces had been in charge of security at welfare centres in government-held areas.

"They are focusing, particularly on welfare centres in the Ampara-Batticaloa district," he said, appreciating the UNICEF’s opposition to conscription. "Hats off to UNICEF’s Ted Chaiban for warning Tigers not to prey at shelters," the officer said, expressing confidence that the five-nation Scandinavian truce monitoring mission would take note of the UNICEF chief representative’s stand. The mission comprises members from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden and is led by Maj.General (retd) Trond Furuhovde.

The military said that Chaiban wouldn’t have demanded an immediate halt to preying at shelters without verifying facts.

The military and the STF claimed that the LTTE and their cronies wanted to get rid of the police and troops guarding welfare centres. "That would have made their task easier. Very much easier," a senior police officer said, expressing confidence that the government would not give in to LTTE pressure. They claimed that the LTTE was demanding unrestricted access to welfare centres to influence orphans. They would also target the destitute, the military said. They would be desperate to fill an unprecedented number of vacancies in the fighting cadre, particularly the Sea Tigers due the recent Indian Ocean tsunami. Although senior LTTE commanders including Soosai had played down losses, claiming their losses were significant, the military believes the LTTE had suffered considerable losses.

The military said that the UNICEF, the truce monitoring mission and the international community should also check on welfare centres in LTTE-held areas.