Journalist Wins Award for Report on Child Soldiers

Sri Lankan journalist Wijedasa Namini received the Grand Prix Lorenzo Natali Award on March 10 in Brussels, for her article on the recruitment of child soldiers by the Tamil Tigers.

Namini´s article, "Blatant Relentless Child Recruitment" covers an issue in Sri Lanka also investigated by Human Rights Watch in a November 2004 report. Despite a ceasefire agreement with the Sri Lanka government in February 2002, the Tigers continued to abduct and recruit children from Tamil families in Northern and Eastern Sri Lanka, according to the report.

Children as young as eleven and twelve are targets of recruitment. Families that do not consent have their children abducted from their homes at night or on their way to school. Those who tried to escape from the camps are beaten in front of other children.

The European Commission annually bestows the Natali Award upon journalists who report on human rights and democracy in various regions.

At the award ceremony, Louis Michel, European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, said that human rights and democracy are closely linked to economic and social development, which cannot be sustained without democracy and freedom of press.

Other journalists commended with the Natali prize are Ahmad Zéïdane Bichara (Chad), Marina Walker Guevara (Argentina), Nick Paton Walsh (UK) and Anne-Marie Jazzar el-Hage (Lebanon.)