Colombo: Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger guerrillas have conscripted at least 15 child soldiers within 24 hours of a ceremonial demobilisation of 49 underage combatants, international truce monitors said on October 6.

Some 250 Tamil parents and their children staged a demonstration at the Eastern town of Valachchenai on October 6 to protest the October 4 abduction of 15 children from the Hindu College there, the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) said.

The Norwegian-led SLMM spokesman Agnes Bragadottir said truce monitors went to the scene on October 6 and was trying to arrange a meeting between the protesting parents and the leadership of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

"Our monitors went to the scene. We were told that the LTTE abducted 15 children. Only three of them have been allowed to go home," Bragadottir said.

The children were taken away within hours of the Tigers ceremonially releasing 49 boys and girls in the Northern rebel-held town of Kilinochchi to a UNICEF-led transit home.

The latest abductions came despite assurances from the LTTE leadership that they will not recruit child soldiers.

However, the UNICEF said on October 3 that they had complaints in respect of 1,155 children who had been allegedly recruited by the LTTE despite a truce with government troops since February 23 last year.

PTI