By IANS,
Colombo : The UN Monday said that one of its staff and his three-member family have been “forcibly recruited” by the Tamil Tiger rebels in the northern war-zone and urged them to be released unharmed immediately.
The UN office said in a statement here that one of its national staff members and his family, including his 16-year-old daughter, were forcibly recruited by the LTTE “inside the government-declared ‘No-Fire-Zone'”.
The government-declared no-fire-zone is located in the north-eastern Mullaitivu district where the advancing troops and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have been locked in heavy fighting over the past few weeks.
The UN said it “holds grave fears for the safety of one UN national staff member, and three dependent family members who were forcibly recruited over the weekend by the LTTE”.
“The UN in Sri Lanka has protested to the LTTE that UN national staff, as well as children in general, are protected under national and international law from recruitment by armed groups, and has called for their immediate release,” the UN statement said.
The UN said another UN national staff member was recruited by the rebels two weeks ago, and was yet to be released despite repeated requests from the UN.
The defence ministry said that the troops Sunday smashed their way into the fast shrinking LTTE-held Puthukkudiyiruppu areas and captured an LTTE-run ‘police post’ and a �court centre’, inflicting heavy damages on the rebels.
According to initial reports, over 50 LTTE cadres have been killed during the weekend’s heavy fighting. The military said that the LTTE has now been cornered into a mere 30 square km stretch of land, holding thousands of civilians as hostage aiming to delay its military defeat for the first time in three decades.
Over 35,000 people from the LTTE-held areas in Mullaitivu district have fled the war-zone and entered the government-held areas since the beginning of 2009. Most of them are being housed at welfare centres and transit camps in the northern Vavuniya town.
There was no immediate reaction from the rebels in this regard.