Seven LTTE cadres fleeing from their organization surrendered at the KALLAR Police road block around 6. 30 p.m. today (27). There are 5 child combatants among the surrendered cadres. The youngest is 15 years old. The other four are 17 years of age. The remaining two cadres are 19 and 21 years of age.

The escapees had been on the run since two days. They had managed to escape from the LTTE KADIRAWELU camp on Wednesday (25th October). The fleeing tiger cadres had been surviving on wood apple fruit over two days.  According to the escapees, they had been following tiger combat training at the KADIRAWELU LTTE camp since last August. The tigers had forcibly abducted them from their homes prior to the MAVIL ARU battle in August. Many of these boys are residents of NILAWELI, MUTTUR, KATTAPARICHCHAN and PALENTHU. It was during the height of the Mavil Aru battle that they commenced combat training at the KADIRAWELU camp. 

The surrendered tiger cadres had revealed to the SERUNUWARA Police that there were over 86 cadres training with them at the initial stages. Around 30 of them had deserted the organization unable to bear the harassment and intense training of the tigers. They also exposed that there are over 30 child combatants bellow the age of 14 who are still undergoing tiger training at the KADIRAWELU camp.
 
The surrendered cadres revealed to the SERUNUWARA police the inhuman nature under which they were trained by the tigers. They had not been fed properly. Every day they had been given rice and BRINJAL curry for lunch. They ate Pittu for breakfast every day.
 
They told the police of severe punishments meted out to them by the tiger hierarchy. Cadres who attempted to escape were surrounded and beaten severely with sticks. Ariel bombing and Multi Barrel Rocket Launcher Fire (MBRL) fire had instilled fear in them. A large number of tiger cadres had died in the air strikes launched by the Air Force on the KADIRAWELU camp.

The escapees said that they were afraid of such attacks. It had demoralized them both physically and mentally. The mounting frustration over a loosing battle they are forced to fight against the Security Forces in order to fulfill the goal of VELUPILLAI PIRABHAKARAN had driven them away from the LTTE.

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