In addition to child abuse, the government is guilty of permitting women to continue to accept employment in the middle east and elsewhere for foreign earnings, despite the fact that it is well known how they are abused and raped by their employers.

Perera then accuses the LTTE of child exploitation. What exploitation? Taking care of children made orphans by indiscriminate attacks on civilians by the Sri Lankan armed forces or by the Tsunami is child abuse? Returning them to relatives willing to take care of them is child exploitation?

The Sri Lankan government has not sent one penny of the donations intended for the victims of the Tsunami to the Northeast. The T.R.O. is the only organization that has helped the victims of this tragedy, which made thousands of women and children homeless. The American Red Cross which collected a total of 2.5 billion dollars for Tsunami relief, has not assigned one penny of it for such relief in the North East of Sri Lanka,claiming that the U.S. government has instructed them not to do so. The U.S. government, when pressed, has said nothing. This is humanitarian,not political assistance. None of these sleazy actions and operations have been accorded any international publicity to date.

There is no proof that the LTTE recruited anyone under 15 as soldieries,an age permitted by the Geneva Conventions and relied upon by the U S and Sri Lankan governments to recruit people to their armed forces. The LTTE admitted that the Karuna group, who have been expelled, did indulge in such recruitment of soldiers under 15, but that is past. They do not act on behalf of the LTTE any longer.

It is time the International community takes notice of these harsh realities without echoing the baseless accusation of the Sri Lankan government and joining the runaway train of accusers about the recruitment of child soldiers by the LTTE, without an independent review of the subject. Instead, the International commuunity gives the government a seal of approval by remainng silent on these abuses and asserting without justification that they are an enviable democratic institution. The U.S.government in particular insists on broadcasting this mythical impression despite the fact that the Tamils and all other ethnic entities and non buddhist religious groups were treated as undesirable outcasts by every Sinhalese Buddhist government since 1948.

It is time that UNICEF, UNCHR, and other independent international organizations investigated these gross and unspeakable violations of children's and women's rights by successive Sri Lankan governments, This messy and chaotic situation cannot be allowed to go unnoticed, any more than that their claims to be a pristine democracy should be honored and dignified by leading nations like the United States of America.