Innumerable little girls were brutally attacked by these heartless Sinhalese troops. Is this not a violation of Human Rights?

A mother was being raped by Sinhalese troop’s right in front of her seven year old son. Put yourself in the place of that poor boy and think about how you would feel. Soon after that incident that mother committed suicide and the child was orphaned. Isn't killing his mother and taking away his right to live normally like other children not a violation of child rights? Where were these organizations then?

These troops bombed a children's school and killed hundreds of children as well as destroyed the school buildings. These troops took away these children's rights to a well education in mere seconds. Was this not a violation of child rights? How is the issue of child soldiers any more concerning than taking away the education of a child?

A mother was breast feeding her two year old baby. While she was doing so, shrapnel cut her neck and she died instantly. The poor child did not know and kept drinking. In separate incident, a child's father was kidnapped by Sinhalese troops even before the baby was born. Both of these children were left alone and a normal life thereafter seemed impossible for them. Did this not reach the ears of child rights groups?

I could provide countless situations and various writings and graphics of these incidents to anyone that is in doubt. The same 'protectors' of child rights that are voicing against the LTTE right now sat calm and did nothing to protect the same children then. Maybe if they had taken action when they were being raped and murdered, we would not be wasting time right now arguing about child soldiers. When these children are orphaned, would the Tamils as a community send them back to the same government to take care of them? Certainly not. These children have no other alternatives than to run into the arms of the LTTE. They have set up schools and orphanages to provide shelter, education, food and care. These are exactly the same rights that the Sinhala government took away from them.

You as a reader put your self in one of these situations. How would you react? Would you not want to protect your brothers and sisters from the same tortures that you faced? Or would you be thinking about child rights and just watch others being put through the same misery as you. If we had given these children's a good life and education, they would follow international child rights standards. But what the government did was take these away from them and teach them that those rights are only in paper. What then stops them from picking up arms to protect themselves and others?

What a cruel world we are living in. Here we have the government that is supposed to be taking care of these children taking away all the basic necessities of a child's life. Then we have the international community that is condemning the movement that is rescuing the children, and providing those necessities. Not only is this government abusing the rights of Tamil children in the North-East. Take a visit to the southern parts of Sri Lanka and you will see the amount of child labour, lack of schools, child prostitution, child pornography that exists there. It is funny how international human rights groups don't visit the North East but blame the Tamils for violations. On the other hand, they visit the southern parts and see what is happening there, but don't blame anyone for that.

Keep in mind what happened to these children. Realize who rescued them and gave them a normal life and also remember that there are millions of other children in the country. As these children grow up, what do you think they would decide to do?

Sathana Sivakumar's Previous Commentary

• Jayalalitha is not at all entitled to talk about Eelam Tamils

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