The birthday party was organized by the Ven. Thera who is the co-ordinator-in-charge of the Home for Children.

Although he is now far away from his home village, Settikulam off Vavuniya, he did not look perturbed but was smiling as he cut the birthday cake and shared it with his friends.

He said that when he was at home, a group of people had come in a white van and asked him to come with them as they could provide him with a better education. As his family was poor, he was asked to go with them and he had obeyed his parents. He said that his journey on that day ended not in a much better place but in a camp where there were children.

"In the camp we were told to kill the Sinhalese and we were trained to use guns," he said.

"The camp where I was trained was known as John Master's camp and there were sixteen LTTE child soldiers there. I led a miserable life for seven days in that camp and so decided to escape anyhow.

I explained my plan to two other boys in the camp and they too agreed to escape. On that very day we waited for the train to pass the camp as we could cross the boundary of the camp by using the train as a cover. My plan worked and we rushed to a police checkpoint located at the other end of the forest," he said.

The police produced the three children before court and following a court order they were handed over to the Home for Children.