AcknowledgementsThis report was written by Jo Becker, advocacy director of the Children’s Rights Division at Human Rights Watch, and Tejshree Thapa, South Asia researcher for the Asia Division at Human Rights Watch, based on research conducted by the authors and Zama Coursen-Neff, counsel to the Children’s Rights Division, in Sri Lanka in August of 2004. Lois Whitman, executive director of the Children’s Rights Division; Zama Coursen-Neff, counsel to the Children’s Rights Division; Brad Adams, executive director of the Asia Division; James Ross, senior legal advisor for Human Rights Watch; and Iain Levine, program director of Human Rights Watch, edited the report. Tim Lohnes designed the map. Fitzroy Hepkins, Andrea Holley, Veronica Matushaj, and Dana Sommers produced the report. Human Rights Watch is grateful to the many nongovernmental organizations and local activists who assisted our research and especially to the children and families who agreed to tell us their stories. For security concerns, the names of these individuals and organizations must be kept confidential. We also appreciated UNICEF’s help and cooperation throughout the course of our research. Human Rights Watch gratefully acknowledges the generous
support of the Oak Foundation, the Malcolm Hewitt Wiener Foundation, and the
community of people who support our work to defend children’s rights. Previous Human Rights Watch reports on child soldiers How to Fight, How to Kill: Child Soldiers in Liberia, 2004 “You’ll Learn Not to Cry”: Child Combatants in Colombia, 2003 Abducted and Abused: Renewed Conflict in Northern Uganda,
2003 Forgotten Fighters: Child Soldiers in Angola, 2003 Stolen Children: Abduction and Recruitment in Northern Uganda, 2003 “My Gun Was as Tall as Me”: Child Soldiers in Burma, 2002 Reluctant Recruits: Children and Adults Forcibly Recruited
for Military Service in North Kivu, 2001 War Without Quarter: Colombia and International
Humanitarian Law, 1998 The Scars of Death: Children Abducted by the Lord’s
Resistance Army in Uganda, 1997 Burma: Children’s Rights and the Rule of Law, 1997 Children of Sudan: Slaves, Street Children, and Child
Soldiers, 1995 Easy Prey: Child Soldiers in Liberia, 1994 “In the Name of God”: Repression Continues in Northern Sudan, 1994 The Lost Boys: Child Soldiers and Unaccompanied Boys in Southern Sudan, 1994
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