In November last year, U.N. special advisor on Sri Lanka, Allan Rock, said government forces were aware of, and at times involved in, child abductions by Karuna militants. The Sri Lankan government says it is investigating the reports.

Human Rights Watch says it hopes the issue of child soldiers will be addressed when the United Nations discusses the secretary-general's report on the Sri Lanka conflict on February 9.

The United Nations Security Council is scheduled to deliberate next month on what sanctions, if any, it can apply for violations of international law on child recruitment.

Supported by photographs and interviews with some two dozen relatives of those who were taken by the Karuna group, the report said that the faction had operated with impunity in government-controlled areas, abducted hundreds of boys and young men from their homes, temples, playgrounds, public roads and even a wedding.

The victims were usually boys or young men from poor families that in many cases had earlier had a child recruited by the Tamil Tigers.

The abductions by the Karuna group, the report pointed out, were carried out in areas with heavy Sri Lankan military presence. In June 2006, alone, more than 40 abductions were reported from Batticaloa district in the east.

In one such case documented by Human Rights Watch, Karuna group members, dressed in Sri Lankan Army uniforms, abducted 13 boys and young men, and held some of them temporarily in a shop across the street from an army post. Parents told Human Rights Watch investigators that they pleaded with the soldiers to intervene, but that those abducted were not released.