The LTTE has failed to respond to UNICEF’s latest claims that the group had recruited at least 40 child soldiers – four of them from three relief camps — since the tsunami disaster of December 26.

UNICEF spokesman Geoff Keele confirmed last week that they had raised the issue with the LTTE. Asked whether the Tigers had responded, Keele told the Sunday Island: "Not yet".

Neither TamilNet nor the website of the LTTE Peace Secretariat issued a denial, although UNICEF did specify that their reports (of recruitment) had been verified. All complaints were lodged with UNICEF by families or extended families of the children.

Keele also rebuffed past LTTE claims that UNICEF opted to speak to the media about child recruitment without first referring to them. "We bring up issues of child recruitment with them on a regular basis," he said. "We had already referred 29 cases to them and the number has now risen to 40. When we are asked for information, we like to provide it in a clear and open manner. We are not hiding things from anybody and we raise issues of child recruitment with the LTTE regularly."

UNICEF said last week that 40 children had been enlisted from the north and east, four of them from relief camps in Trincomalee and Batticaloa. The youngest was aged 13 but most were between the ages of 15 and 17. They did not have information on individual cases and could not say whether these children had volunteered or whether they had been forcibly recruited. The LTTE has maintained that many children either volunteer or are given to the group by parents too poor to care for them.

Commenting on the latest figures, Keele said the recruitment of children was a longstanding practice of the LTTE. "It doesn’t look like they are targeting specifically tsunami-affected people but the fact is the country has gone through an incredible tragedy," he noted. "Efforts are focused on relief operations and we would have hoped that at this time, when the country has already suffered so much, the recruitment of children would have stopped. But it hasn’t."

Asked what steps could be taken to eradicate child recruitment by the LTTE, Keel emphasised, "only the LTTE can put an end to this practice."

Earlier this month, the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) warned of increased child recruitment by the LTTE in the wake of the tsunami disaster. The organisation said it had information on enlisting of children in Trincomalee and Jaffna.

"The Tamil Tigers are preying on the most vulnerable by taking advantage of children who have been orphaned or displaced by the tsunami," said Jo Becker, HRW children’s rights advocacy director. "Every effort must be made to stop this unconscionable recruiting from families who have already suffered so much."

Velupillai Sivanadiyar, president of the LTTE’s Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation, denied these assertions. Speaking recently to the Sunday Island from Mullaitivu, where he is overseeing relief and rehabilitation operations, Sivanadiyar said the allegations were "100 per cent false".