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.
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