Priest accused of helping LTTE to recruit

Courtesy: Daily Mirror

(April 03, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) A group of parents who came over to the military side late last month had complained that a priest in the ‘no fire zone’ in Mullaitivu, had helped the LTTE to forcibly recruit several hundred underage children.

According to one mother (whose name cannot be revealed for security reasons), parents had sent some 600 children to a Catholic Church located in Walayarmadam,
Priest accused of helping LTTE to recruit just south of Puthumatalan, to protect the children against recruitment by the LTTE.

On March 24, a group of LTTE cadres had come to the church and ordered the children to come with them, despite the parents’ and children’s protests. However, the priest had not objected and the LTTE had freely taken away the children.

The angry crowed had then berated the priest. The priest had told the parents that the children would be freed soon.

Before departing, the LTTE cadres had fired in the air to pretend that they had taken away the children after threatening the priest, according to the grieving mother.

The priest had also been accused of forcibly recruiting children for the LTTE on several previous occasions.

-Sri Lanka Guardian