ASIA/ SRI LANKA - No alarm about children kidnapped for organ trafficking: the Church in Sri Lanka has received no direct reports of missing infants

Tuesday, 4 January 2005

Colombo (Fides Service) - At the moment there have been no reports of children who lost their parents in the seaquake now sadly known as tsunami orphans, being kidnapped or abused or sold as slaves or used for human organ trafficking, sources at the Papal Nunciature in Colombo told Fides. The Nunciature is monitoring aid and needs of refugees in the four dioceses affected by the Jaffna, Trincomalee-Batticaloa, Galle and Colombo. The Bishops Conference has received no complaints from parishes, religious institutes or individuals with regard to presumed kidnapping of children anywhere. The Nuncio archbishop Mario Zenari and his staff who are visiting the affected areas say nothing of the kind has been mentioned. Hence the need for caution with regard to news in the local press in Sri Lanka and comments on events in other countries such as Indonesia and Thailand.
Orphans are readily given a home by family members, the source told Fides. However it is still to be seen if the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have abducted more children recently to use them as soldiers. Sri Lanka is one of the countries where children are used in war. It is estimated that there are several thousand children among the adult military.
In the meantime, while corpses are still being buried or cremated, families dispersed by fury of the tsunami are gradually coming together. The source told Fides that it will be some weeks before the families are recomposed and only then will it be possible to see if any unaccounted for children are missing. Today a “lost children” alarm was raised by a Buddhist student association it was given no confirmation from civil authorities or church personnel such as the Salesian Fathers for years involved in rehabilitating former street children and child soldiers .
Caritas Sri Lanka supplied Fides with updated figures with regard to the victims: 30,000 dead including 18,000 children and at least 5,000 people missing; 800,000 homeless sheltering in camps or churches or temples made into assistance centres.
(PA) (Agenzia Fides 04/01/2005 Righe: 33 Parole: 329)


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