By IANS
Colombo : Amnesty International has urged Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger guerrillas to stop recruiting child soldiers.
An Amnesty statement said that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) released 135 child soldiers in June and pledged to rid its ranks of all children under 18 by the end of the year.
"The LTTE must immediately return all remaining child soldiers to their families and engage in transparent procedures with Unicef to reunite remaining child soldiers with their families," it said.
It said Unicef had recorded a significant drop in LTTE recruitment of children. "Nonetheless many child soldiers remain in their ranks."
According to Unicef, at least 1,591 children still remained with LTTE at the end of May 2007. The figure included 506 under the age of 18 and 1,085 recruited when they were under 18 but who have now passed that age.
At the same time, Amnesty said that the LTTE was not the only armed political group recruiting children in Sri Lanka.
Amnesty International said it had also received reliable reports of increased recruitment by other groups such as the Karuna faction, which broke away from the LTTE in 2004.
The head of Unicef's Sri Lanka mission noted that, "at this point the pace of recruitment by the Karuna faction is actually higher than the pace of recruitment by the Tigers".
Amnesty said: "Children have no role to play in war. The recruitment of children is a war crime.
"The LTTE and all other armed groups must pledge not to use child soldiers, cease recruitment immediately and return the children to their families."