UNICEF "shocked" over SLA misreport
[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 March 2006, 09:55 GMT]
Junko Mitani, UNICEF Spokesperson in Sri Lanka said "UNICEF is shocked" on learning the figures of child recruitment cases quoted by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) were incorrect, reported Morning Leader, a Sri Lanka English daily Wednesday. It further adds that UNICEF has opted to take action against State media for indicating UNICEF reported figures to be false.
Junko Mitani told the daily that the military had quoted figures well above 1,358 since January alone, but the numbers were lower as only 25 cases were reported in January and that the February figures are yet to be released. The cases of alleged child recruitment by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam(LTTE) which are regularly registered by the UNICEF whose spokesperson said "UNICEF is shocked over the numbers quoted by the military as even during the ethnic conflict we did not have over 1,000 cases reported in a month. The numbers referred to here are numbers which have been recorded by UNICEF since April 2001", reported the daily. It is also said in the same report that the UNICEF was again shocked over a mis-reported article in the state media claiming child recruitment cases were understated by UNICEF.
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