COLOMBO, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) -- The Sri Lankan government and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) launched a national campaign on Thursday in Colombo to prevent child recruitment in armed conflict and to promote the release of all recruited children.

    The campaign, "Bring Back the Child", targets armed groups, vulnerable communities and the children affected, said the UNICEF Sri Lankan office in a statement.

    The campaign's call for child recruitment to stop goes hand in hand with the provision of reintegration and rehabilitation services for children who are released, said the statement.

    "Bring Back the Child" will air on television, radio and through newspapers, billboards and posters across the country, with a focus on the north and east, and in the country's three languages - Sinhalese, Tamil and English.

    UNICEF said nearly 7,000 children have been reported to UNICEF by their families as having been recruited to armed groups since 2002.

    "Between 2002 and 2009, some of these child soldiers were released, others passed the age of 18, some are still trapped as child soldiers, and some have been killed in the conflict," said the statement.

    "Child soldiers live in a theater of violence and suffering where their lives are at great risk. However, following their release they can and they do adapt if they are given a second chance at childhood. This campaign is one part of that," Philippe Duamelle, UNICEF's representative in Sri Lanka was quoted by the statement as saying.

    Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse accused the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) for recruiting child soldiers and called on all Sri Lankan to join the campaign of freeing them.

    "The whole world knows that the strategists of LTTE terror continue to hold Tamil civilians hostage for their cause and have increased the recruitment of children to carry arms for terror," said the president in addressing a ceremony of launching the campaign.

    Rajapake said his government launched this campaign "after the failure of the United Nations to get any agreement from the LTTE that it would put an end to child conscription."

    The president said the total under age -- under 18 years -- recruitment by the LTTE in December 2008 was 6,288.

    "There are claims that 2,059 such children, or those recruited as children, have been released, which requires verification," said the president.

    "I call upon all of Sri Lanka to join this cause, to be part of this campaign ... to free our children from having to carry arms for anyone, in any conflict, anywhere," Rajapakse said.

    Sri Lanka was among the first countries to sign and ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict.

    Within this protocol, Sri Lanka committed to take action against the recruitment of children and provide rehabilitation support to children released from armed groups.