Burmese Soldiers Still Recruit Underage Youth

By LAWI WENG Wednesday, January 27, 2010

The Burmese army is still recruiting underage youth despite the government's agreement with the UN that such practices would stop.

In the latest incident, Kyaw Min Tun, 14, was conscripted by a soldier in Light Infantry Battalion No. 83, based in Migaungye in Taungdwingyi Township in Magway Division.

His mother, San Thar Win, told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday that her son was taken to the battalion on Jan. 19 at 4 p.m. She said a soldier from the battalion persuaded him to join by saying he would receive a 60,000 kyat (US $60) monthly salary.

She has asked the battalion to release her son, she said, but the military has not complied.

Meanwhile, Aye Myint, a leading labor activist in Pegu Division, said that two other underage youths were taken to the same battalion this month. His group, Guiding Star, works on issues involving child recruitment and forced labor.

The group received 121 recruitment complaints last year, but only about one-third of the youth were released, he said.

He said that the Burmese government should punished soldiers who recruit underage youth. Government officials have signed an agreement with the International Labour Organization to stop such recruitment but soldiers in the field continue the practice, he said.

Meanwhile, the Burmese military government has extended an agreement allowing the UN to monitor complaints of underage recruitment for one more year.

Kari Tapiola, the executive director of the ILO in Geneva, told The Irrawaddy by e-mail that the overall number of underage recruitment complaints has increased.

The forced recruitment of children into the military is a problem which has been recognized at a high level. According to the “Annual Report of the UN Secretary-General to the Security Council on Children and Armed Conflict” in March last year, the Burmese junta “continues to screen and release underage children found in its armed forces during the training process.”

The report said the ILO, together with the International Committee of the Red Cross, was instrumental in the release of 12 underage recruits and had verified the release of 23 children “mostly from involuntary military enrollment.” It was waiting for a government response in 14 other cases.

The UN said in its latest report on the situation that the military is still recruiting child soldiers.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch has said that 70,000 underage soldiers are serving in the Burmese armed forces.

Human rights groups say children are recruited at train stations, bus depots, teahouses, video halls and movie cinemas, and even while walking home at night. The groups say the youth are sometimes threatened and beaten if they refuse to agree to undergo military training. After their training, many are sent to areas where the military is in conflict with ethnic groups.

Children’s Rights Celebrated in Naypyidaw

By WAI MOE Friday, November 20, 2009
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=17260
The Burmese military junta celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Universal Convention on Children’s Rights on Friday in Naypyidaw.

The ceremony surprised many people in the human rights community because the junta is often cited as one of the world’s worst regimes in violating the rights of children. The army is regularly accused of conscripting child soldiers.

A non-binding resolution approved on Thursday by the UN Assembly’s Third Committee called on the Burmese government to end the recruitment of child soldiers and “to intensify measures to ensure the protection of children from armed conflict.”

The UN committee called on the junta to cooperate with the UN special representative for Children and Armed Conflict by granting access to areas where child soldiers are recruited.

According to a report by the US State Department: “Urban poor and street children in Rangoon and Mandalay are at risk of involuntary conscription as child soldiers by the Burmese junta. Thousands of children are forced to serve in Burma’s national army as desertions of men in the army rise. Some children were threatened with jail if they did not agree to join the army.”

The Burmese army has an estimated 70,000 child soldiers, one of the highest percentages in the world, according to rights’ groups. Some are as young as 11 years old. Non-state armed groups also recruit thousands of children as soldiers.

The exile-based Human Rights Education Institute of Burma (HREIB), which monitors children’s rights in the country, claimed that the junta recently used child soldiers in military offensives against ethnic minorities.

In a statement on Nov. 9, the group said the military offensive by the regime in the Kokang area of northeastern Burma and Karen State underscored the gravity of the situation.

“Celebrating the convention on children’s rights means respecting child rights,” said Aung Myo Min, the coordinator of HREIB. “The event in Naypyidaw seems to be a showcase without meaning since the Burmese junta has failed to collaborate with the UN Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict for four years.”

He said that according to the International Labor Organization (ILO), the number of child soldiers in Burma is increasing.

Other abuses involving Burmese children occur in the areas of child labor, human trafficking, healthcare and education.

There are no official statistics on child labor in the country. However, the ILO has estimated that more than 1.1 million Burmese children are economically active. Child laborers are noticeable on the streets and in teashops and markets in Burmese cities.

Burma has one of world’s poorest health care systems. The UN International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) has said that infant mortality in the country is unusually high, with one out of 10 live births resulting in death.

“Malnutrition is widespread among children under five with about one-third of children severely or moderately stunted and underweight,” according to UNICEF.

The UN says that less than 55 percent of children in Burma complete primary school.

Rights groups say Burmese children work as forced laborers in dangerous jobs in Thailand, China, Bangladesh, Taiwan, India, Malaysia, Korea, Macau and Japan. Oftentimes, the children are exploited in the sex industry.

Independent researchers estimate that at least 20,000 Burmese children work in Thailand alone.

“Burmese children in Thailand are subjected to conditions of forced labor as hawkers, beggars, and for work in shops, agriculture, fish processing and other small-scale industries,” said the US State Department in its “Trafficking in Persons Report 2009.”

“Trafficking in girls for the purpose of prostitution persisted as a major problem, particularly in urban areas. Burma is [also] a destination country for child sex tourism,” the report said.

Right Group Focuses on Burmese Children

Right Group Focuses on Burmese Children
By THE IRRAWADDY Wednesday, May 6, 2009

A US-based human rights advocacy group, the Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict, called on Wednesday for the UN Security Council to protect the tens of thousands of children "who are raped, abducted and recruited as soldiers" in Burma.

The group has released a 60-page study, “No More Denial: Children Affected by Armed Conflict in Myanmar (Burma),” to mark the first anniversary of Cyclone Nargis that hit Burma in May 2008 and "to draw urgent attention to the plight of children who have been subject to heinous violations of their rights every day since the cyclone and for decades prior."

The report documents killing and maiming of children, child soldiers, rape, abduction, forced displacement, attacks on schools, denial of humanitarian access and other violations. It also charged the UN Security Council with remaining largely silent despite evidence from UN and local sources of these violations.

According to the report, children as young as nine constantly face the threat of forced recruitment by security forces, non-state armed groups and civilians, even in public places such as bus or train stations and markets.

"Approximately one in five children in the eastern conflict areas dies before reaching the age of five, often due to denial of humanitarian assistance and medical treatment by the Myanmar authorities. This rate is comparable to some the world's deadliest conflict zones, including Democratic Republic of Congo and Afghanistan," the report said.

The Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict was formed in 2001 by a group of leading human rights and humanitarian organizations in response to the need for improved monitoring and reporting on violations against children.

Last month, the Annual Report of the UN Secretary-General to the Security Council on Children and Armed Conflict was released. It reported that the Burmese military regime’s army and nine armed ethnic groups are still recruiting child soldiers.

The report accused both the Burmese junta and an array of armed ethnic groups, including ceasefire groups and active anti-government forces, of continuing to engage in the practice of recruiting child soldiers.
http://www.irrawaddy.org//article.php?art_id=15594