Tamil Tiger Rebels Recruit Fighters in Indian Refugee Camps

May 28 (Bloomberg) -- The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebel group is recruiting fighters, including children, from among refugees living in camps in India's Tamil Nadu state, Sri Lanka's Defense Ministry said.

``It is believed that the LTTE terrorist outfit has infiltrated the Tamil Nadu refugee camps in the guise of displaced and asylum seekers,'' the ministry said on its Web site. LTTE operatives are trying to persuade families to ``get the youngsters to return'' and boost recruitment.

The LTTE hasn't commented on the Defense Ministry statement. It has said it is taking steps to return any minors in its ranks to their families.

More than 16,000 people have fled across the Palk Strait to Tamil Nadu to escape the fighting in Sri Lanka since January 2006, the United Nations said last November. An estimated 60,000 Sri Lankans are in camps in the state that lies about a two-hour boat ride from the South Asian island nation.

The LTTE and a breakaway faction known as the Karuna group are continuing to forcibly recruit people, including children, Unicef, the UN Children's Fund, said in March. By the end of January, 6,006 children had been recorded as abducted by the Tamil Tigers during the conflict with 1,710 of them still being held. Registered abductions of children by the Karuna group were 235 with 169 still being held, it said.

The splinter group takes its name from Colonel Karuna, a former LTTE commander in the island's east, who in March 2004 broke away from the main faction in the north. The Tamil Tigers say the government is supporting Karuna, an allegation the military denies.

UN Call

The UN earlier this month demanded that parties in Sri Lanka demobilize all child soldiers without delay. The factions must create safe zones for children and guarantee humanitarian access to all areas, the Office of the Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict said in a May 11 statement.

The LTTE said May 9 it asked parents of children under 17 years of age who are still with the group to contact a special panel it has set up, TamilNet reported at the time. The Tamileelam Child Protection Board has been working to identify child recruits since 2006, it said.

Indian police in April arrested three members of the LTTE's naval wing at a refugee camp in Tamil Nadu, Sri Lanka's Defense Ministry said at the time.

India and Sri Lanka stepped up sea patrols in the Palk Strait to try to prevent the LTTE smuggling weapons. The Indian navy in February began round-the-clock patrolling of its waters off Tamil Nadu and its coastguard vessels are monitoring the International Maritime Border, India's state-run broadcaster Doordarshan reported at the time.

Naval Unit

The navy last week deployed six vessels in the Palk Strait, the Gulf of Mannar and Palk Bay as part of an operation to control smuggling and infiltration.

India must boost its sea defenses to fight terrorism, A.K. Antony, the country's defense minister, said last week.

Fighting in the South Asian island nation escalated last year as two attempts at peace talks in Geneva failed to make progress toward ending the two-decade conflict between Sri Lanka's government and the LTTE.

The Tamil Tigers, who want a separate homeland in areas of the north and east they control, have an estimated 12,000 fighters, including 4,000 members of their Sea Tigers force.