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Children & Terrorism

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Submitted By savanosman
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Title Children: The new face of terrorism Background
Recruitment of children in armed conflict is an old phenomenon, which is rooted in the violent history of areas like Africa, Middle East and South East Asia, that had a progressive increase in arming and equipping children for terrorism. However the documentation of these images by the new wave of terrorism anarchist led in a smart way, reopened the case, which was controversial square elitist confined to the corridors between human rights organizations and international institutions related to the general phenomenon posed by the media without criticism.
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is one of the numerous groups established in 1975, appeared to fight for the Tamil minority rights against the Sinhalese majority, looking for an independent habitat for Tamil people in the north and east of Sri Lanka. After the Indian Peace Keeping Force attack in October 1987, the LTTE began abducting and forcing large amounts of women and children (many under 15) to fight. Children were immediately trained for massed attacks in battles, they have been the LTTE leader’s most preferred recruits as they can be easily brain washed into suicide bomber, which was their main purpose. Over 90% of the LTTE cadre had been recruited as underage. Child soldering is considered one of the most heinous war crimes committed against humanity. UNICEF statistics indicate 1,591 cases against the LTTE up to end may2007. Once recruited either by force or otherwise, the children are separated from the rest of the world and trained to do all sorts of terrorist acts including killing Sinhalese and Muslim children. 5,794 cases of child abductions have been reported against the LTTE between January 2001 and December 2006 period. All of these children have been recruited to the LTTE as child soldiers. Girls and boys were forcibly recruited, indoctrinated and trained to fight, over the course of a 30 year conflict many thousands of children, some as young as 9 were conscripted into the Tiger’s ranks.
The question is can anybody call himself a liberator of race when he destroys the future generation of the same race he claims to protect? These children have no future than to kill and die a violent death. They have been denied from their parents love, education and protection. Tamil Tigers also trespassed the Tamil nation with their collapsed economy of higher unemployment by making a kind of treaty with them, that if they hand over their children they would get the privilege status of (Great Hero Families) paying no taxes, receiving job promotions and assign private seats for them in public places. And that motivated many parents to send their children with the Tamil Tigers in order to go up the social ladder. Still the LTTE has threatened parents that, if they do not give up a child, they would not be provided with security when the battle breaks out.
Questions
The two questions this research seeks to answer are: * What are the implied reasons children and young adults have become members of the LTTE? * Were there socio-economic conditions that paved the way for easy recruitment?
Objectives
This research seeks for the use the exercise of children as terrorists and organizational structure of one of the world’s most dangerous terrorist groups named Hamas. Particularly this paper will: * Consider child terrorists among the terrorist group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Sri Lanka by initially improving the idea of what’s really meant by child terrorists. * Discuss the continuing situation and struggle in Sri Lanka. * Seek for causes behind the usage of children in Sri Lanka, how they are recruited and educated for terrorism. * Research policies and international law legislated to arm the ongoing usage of children in terrorist institutions. * Lastly examine the missing innocence of child terrorists within the terrorist group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Sri Lanka by first broadening a base understanding of what’s meant by child terrorism. Methodology It is important to point out the methodological support and influences of research studies. This is related to the usefulness of quantitative and qualitative methods on my analyses. The use of these two methods is producing several forms of data. The most considerable criticism of terrorism researches hail from critical terrorism studies. Research Design
A qualitative design was selected to contrive this case study which is a systematic subjective approach utilized to characterize life experiences. I chose this design in order to gain insight and scout the depth, richness transmitted in this phenomenon. My selection of a qualitative approach for my case study was due to several compelling reasons. Generally, qualitative research methods are mostly useful in detecting the concept that people give to events they experience. The aim of this study is to determine the reasons behind child recruitment and indoctrination worldwide and what can be done to restrain the rising issue of child soldiers especially in Sri Lanka, home to the most fatal terrorist organizations ever known.
Data Collection
As a qualitative researcher I used many methods for gathering information. Interviewing was one of those methods with a research basis.
“I interview because I am interested in other people’s stories. Telling stories is essentially a meaning-making process. When people tell stories, they select details of their experience from their stream of consciousness” (Seidman, 1991). Based on the framework of this study, that concentrated on making meaning. I chose interviewing as my primary data collection wagon.
It was important for me to go on a field trip to Sri Lanka because I couldn’t imagine doing a proper analysis of data if I haven’t taken part in collecting it. When I got there, luckily I was able to make interviews with some former LTTE child soldiers. I used the semi-structured interview approach and a constant set of open-ended questions to gain, first personal knowledge about the children’s past, second their experiences with the Tamil Tigers. I used open-ended questions here to encourage them to reply freely and palpably to my questions. One of my interviewees was a 14 year old girl named Indra: * If you can tell me how you came to be with the LTTE, what happened to you, what forced you to go with them and fight?
I did not join them of my own free will, at the time I was forced to go to them, it’s what the circumstances demanded. It was compulsory for me and the other children to join and mandatory to fight, we had no choice. First we had to do military training for almost three months, it was very strict. At the end of the training I was sent to work in the medical unit, later on I was sent to fight. * Can you tell me a little bet about what’s happening to children in LTTE, what they are experiencing?
During the battle, the army and the Tigers are constantly bombing each other. The shells are exploding in the people. I have seen bodies, some without heads, and some without limbs. It’s blood everywhere. We children realized that at any moment we could die, we always had to find a way to save our own lives. * What were your feelings when you first came here, it must have been very hard for you to deal with this place after being told by the Tamil Tigers that the only way to get freedom and save the Tamil people is to fight and get rid of the Sinhalese nation?
I was extremely scared when I surrendered to the army, they I mean the Sinhalese took us to a camp and fed us. Before I thought that all the Sinhalese were fighting us, but now I know that they have as good as bad in them, they have looked after us very well here.
Later on, I arranged a meeting with an LTTE negotiator Anton Balasingham.
Data Analysis
In my study I used the constant comparative analysis of data collection to set apart inclusive themes followed by itemized discussion for the most salient themes, this kind of analyses are referred to as inductive analyses. Furthermore I largely relied on secondary data analyses, such as data and materials created by other researchers. However Main methodological problems of terrorism and counter-terrorism researches are the use of secondary data analysis, the most exclusive choice for an opportunity sample and for a qualitative methodology. However the primary methodological challenges are the use of primary data, collected, for instance, through interviews and the application of statistical analysis.

A substantial point specified within counter-terrorism arenas research has often been controlled by state-centric perspectives pointed on secondary sources and lacking the information of primary data collection and analysis. For this purpose, the traditional pursuit of terrorism researches has been criticized for being analytically and methodologically weak, for counting too heavily on secondary input and for failing to recognize terrorism and counter-terrorism through the perspectives and experiences of physicians and those who experience state suppression. Timescale My case study research took up to 36 months from 1 May 2005 as follows: * May-November 2005: Surveying the literature & interpretive models * December2005-October 2006: Case study data collection * November2006-January 2007: Collation and code data (Harmonize interpretive model) * February-September 2007: Developing & presenting precursory findings and analysis * October2007-January 2008: First draft of the case study * February-April 2008: Final write-up of research report * 20th May 2008: Accepted Resources Human Resources, Print Resources and Electronic Resources, all three played big parts in my research study, but obviously case studies have more tendency towards print resources, which I personally have benefited a lot from. Consequently I have gathered information mostly from books, journals and documents including relevant information. I also benefited from my trip to Sri Lanka where I was able to meet, collect information and interview citizens and journalists with knowledge and skills related to my case study topic.

References
Briggs J (2005). Innocents Lost: When child Soldiers go to war. New York: Basic Books. p. 83.
Nachammai R (2006). Outrage over Child Soldiers in Sri Lanka. Christian Science Monitor. 99(3): 7
Rosen D (2005). Armies of the Young: Child Soldiers in War and Terrorism. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press. p.10

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