Welcome entry by Interpol

THOSE watching over the interests of the world's children in general and those of the Lankan child in particular are bound to welcome the entry of Interpol to the current battle against the Tigers' continued abuse of North-East children as combatants in their fighting units.

Interpol or the International Police are most welcome to this crackdown on the Tigers, who have time and again shown a crass indifference to public opinion on the question of the use of children as fighters.

Thus far, valiant efforts have been made by the Lankan State to rouse the conscience of the world on this question, but the Tigers have been carrying on ruthlessly. As is known, even the UN has been trying to exert pressure on the Tigers on this issue but the latter have been turning a stone-deaf ear to the world's protests.

Apparently, the compulsion applied is leaving the Tigers unmoved. A degree of force needs to be applied to these urgings and the Interpol is ideal for the job. As our headline said yesterday, Interpol could pack the required "muscle" into the crackdown and even help in severely crippling the Tiger operation.

The UN embodies global opinion but lacks a strong enforcement capability, particularly on issues such as child abuse. Much could the UN do to contain such evils but completely eradicating them calls for substantial law and order measures.

Interpol could meet this shortfall through the deployment of the needed law and order mechanisms. For example, it could be instrumental in effective and efficient intelligence gathering and sharing among its membership, which could spell the unravelling of LTTE machinations in the use of child fighters.

Interpol also possesses the necessary coercive capability to arrest LTTE operatives, for instance, and bring them before a court of law.

Accordingly, the UN could closely coordinate with the Sri Lankan State and Interpol in cracking down on the LTTE-inspired scourge of the use of children in violent conflict and war.

We urge the UN and Interpol to lose no time in the taking the Tigers to task on these monstrous crimes against humanity. A slow-footed response by these parties could mean added child abuse and increasing recruits for the LTTE in their fight against the Lankan State.

Interpol has activated itself quite effectively against child abusers, such as paedophiles and sex perverts. The same effectiveness needs to be displayed in dealing with the LTTE which is in the same category as paedophiles and child abusers with a sexual bent. Together they constitute a terrible scourge of children and childhood.

If the world community is to help Sri Lanka meaningfully in its search for peace, the brutalization of children by the LTTE needs to be ended quickly. For, it is brutalized minds which are compounding Sri Lanka's problems. The rapid criminalization of society renders a solution increasingly difficult to arrive at.

This is because violence becomes a way of life among those whose minds have been brutalized by the forces intent on taking Lanka along the path of war. It goes without saying that this is the Tigers' agenda.

Therefore, the world community and Interpol would be serving the great cause of Lankan peace by cracking down hard on the LTTE.

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