The United Nations Security Council has strongly condemned the assassination of Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar as a “senseless act of terrorism”, and has urged that it be “speedily investigated and the perpetrators, organizers and their sponsors” brought to justice.

The statement by the President of the Council came on Monday 15th August, the day Sri Lanka bid farewell to Minister Kadirgamar who was assassinated by an LTTE sniper on the 12th.

With the increasing number of governments and world leaders describing the assassination as “a vicious terrorist act”, with legal implications under international law where the perpetrators are identified as “terrorists”, the national and international authorities will be obliged to redouble efforts to bring the perpetrators to justice.

On a previous occasion also, in July 2005, the LTTE was named as an offending party by the UN for recruitment of child soldiers. The UN Resolution which followed recommendations submitted by the Secretary General in his February 2005 report on Children and Armed Conflict, calls for the imposition of targeted and graduated sanctions against offending parties, which may include “travel restrictions on leaders, and their exclusion from any governance structures and amnesty provisions, the imposition of arms embargoes, a ban on military assistance, and restriction on the flow of financial resources to the parties concerned.”

According to UNICEF, the LTTE has intensified recruitment of children even after the ceasefire agreement was signed in 2002.