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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ramarajan" data-source="post: 1603386" data-attributes="member: 86701">. Use of Excessive Force and Other Abuses in Internal ConflictsGovernment security forces, including progovernment paramilitary groups, and the LTTE used excessive force and committed abuses against civilians, while violating the CFA. The SLMM ceased recording and publicizing CFA violations in July. The government used army commandos known as Deep Penetration Units (DPUs) to conduct operations against the LTTE in the Tiger‑controlled Vanni. The LTTE also used special operatives to conduct infiltration operations against government security forces. LTTE suicide cadres, also known as "Black Tigers," as well as the government's DPUs killed civilians in attacks targeted at the opposing military force.The Karuna group, the Pillaiyan group, and the EPDP reportedly ran extortion rings. Both groups killed civilians, in many cases following abductions. According to numerous, credible reports, the government provided protection, intelligence, and military aid to Karuna, Pillaiyan, and EPDP cadres who committed extrajudicial killings, abductions, extortion, and torture. However, the government publicly denied any connection to the paramilitary groups.In the east, the Karuna group and the Pillaiyan group often operated without hindrance in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps under government control and restricted humanitarian access. Abductions and forced recruitment by the Karuna group took place in IDP camps in Batticaloa and Trincomalee districts. According to SLMM, the Karuna and Pillaiyan groups were responsible for numerous abductions of male children and adults in Ampara and Batticaloa districts. The LTTE allegedly used civilians as human shields. Suspected LTTE presence among the IDPs led the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) to attack some IDP camps and safe havens, killing a number of civilians.On January 2, Air Force fighter jets bombed a village near Mannar along the northwest coast, killing 16 civilians. On September 2, DPUs detonated a claymore mine in LTTE‑controlled territory, striking a civilian van and killing at least 12, including four women and two children. On September 26, a claymore bomb killed Jesuit priest Reverend Nicholaspillai Packiyaranjith; observers alleged that a government DPU was responsible.On January 5, the LTTE detonated a bomb on a bus in the predominately Sinhalese town Nittambuwa, killing five and injuring 50. The following day the LTTE detonated a bomb on a bus in the southern coastal town of Hikkaduwa, killing 15 and injuring 42. On April 7, the LTTE used a claymore mine to target a bus with civilian and military passengers 15 miles west of Vavuniya, killing seven civilians and injuring more than 25. On April 23, a similar attack by the LTTE on a bus with Tamil and Muslim passengers killed seven civilians near Chettikulam in the north.On April 29, the LTTE used light aircraft to bomb the Ceylon Petroleum Company oil and gas facilities. On November 28, an LTTE bomb attack on the Nugegoda shopping mall near Colombo and a suicide bombing of a government office killed 21 and wounded 36 civilians. In June near the northern town of Kebitigollewa, a claymore mine attack on a passenger bus killed 64 civilians, and on December 5, another claymore attack killed 15 and injured 23 civilians.Late in the year unknown groups possibly linked to the LTTE, Sinhalese extremist groups, or illegal timber harvesters carried out brutal attacks against Sinhalese farmers in the south near Tissamaharama and Yala Park, killing five in two separate incidents.Before the government drove the LTTE from the east in August, there were reports that the LTTE expropriated food, fuel, and other items meant for IDPs from both the conflict with the government and the 2004 tsunami. Reports accused the Karuna group of similar action, especially in relation to camps of persons displaced from the conflict around Batticaloa.At year's end no arrests were made in alleged LTTE killings from 2005 and 2006, including the 2005 killing of Major Nizam Muthalif, commanding officer of the First Intelligence Battalion, or the August 2005 assassination of Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar.Landmines, booby traps, and unexploded ordnance posed a problem to resettlement of IDPs and rebuilding in the east after the government's expulsion of the LTTE. The government periodically suspended humanitarian demining operations in the north and east due to increased violence, although NGO and army demining efforts accelerated in the east after the LTTE's August expulsion.Child SoldiersBoth the LTTE and the Karuna group (also known as TMVP, or Pillaiyan group) used minors in battle. The Karuna group and the LTTE also continued to recruit child soldiers forcibly, while intimidating and using violence against civilians.The LTTE instituted a "one family, one fighter" policy, forcing each family to provide at least one member, including children, to the LTTE. By year's end most sources indicated that the "one family, one fighter" policy targeted those 18 years or older. The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) noted a significant reduction in reported child recruitment by the LTTE. While the trend indicated that the LTTE was eliminating the recruitment and use of child soldiers, it had not complied with the promise to end the use of all minors by year's end. UNICEF reported that the LTTE forcibly recruited (or rerecruited) 160 children during the year with an average age of 16 years. At year's end 205 children remained in LTTE custody, including 1,224 who were recruited as children but were over 18 at year's end.According to UN sources, there was limited progress during the year in the release of children recruited by both groups. A UNICEF‑supported action plan sought to rehabilitate former LTTE child soldiers through release and reintegration. Under this program there were to be three UNICEF-supported transit centers. Two of the transit centers, in Batticaloa and Trincomalee, never opened because of a lack of releases by the LTTE. By mid-year the LTTE no longer controlled these areas. UNICEF supported the establishment of a transit center in Kilinochchi for child recruits released by the LTTE, which remained open, but UNICEF noted that its use was limited and declining.The Karuna group continued to recruit children, some forcibly after abduction. Karuna cadres used coercion, extortion, rape, and murder to force children and adults to join their ranks. Karuna operatives often bribed parents to allow their children to join the Karuna group, and punished parents or children if they resisted.Unlike the LTTE, UNICEF statistics indicated that child recruitment by the progovernment Karuna group did not decline. The UNSR on Children and Armed Conflict reported and cited evidence that government forces were at times complicit in the recruitment of children. During the year, UNICEF reported that the Karuna group recruited and rerecruited children for use as child soldiers, especially in Batticaloa district for a total of 251. This was more than in 2006, although the rate of recruitment was down from its peak in late 2005. Some previously recruited child soldiers reached 18 years of age while continuing to serve in the Karuna group. UNICEF figures show that at the end of the year, 160 children were still serving in the Karuna forces, and 69 who were recruited as children were now over age 18.</blockquote>

Verification: Nawa warak dahaya keeyada? (Namaya wadi kireema dahaya)

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