Child Soldiers Still Used in Burma
Human Rights Violations of Children Occurring in Myanmar
Dec 17, 2008
The concept of children being recruited into national and rebel armies and fighting in combat is one that horrifies most people. However, the use of child soldiers is still occurring in Burma and there are no indications this practice will cease in the near future. Children's human rights are violated on a massive level whether they are "voluntarily" or forcefully recruited to be part of a military. Yet despite the general awareness of this practice, which has been documented for years by human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch, the international community has been relatively silent and inactive on the issue.
Toe Kyi was only 14 when he joined a rebel army in the jungles of Burma to fight the military regime.
“I was barely able to carry a gun,” he says. “So I was usually given a little pistol instead.”
At one point, Human Rights Watch estimated that children may have accounted for 35 to 45 per cent of recruits in the national army and 70,000 or more of Burma’s estimated 350,000 soldiers. More recently in late 2007, Human Rights Watch released a report entitled “Sold to be Soldiers,” in which the organization documented the cases of young boys being sold to the army by recruiters.
Army Recruiters Profit from New Young Recruits
The going rate for new recruits tended to range from 25,000 to 50,000 kayt (approximately $5,000 to $10,000 Canadian). Despite claiming to have a voluntary armed forces, Human Rights Watch documented cases of Burmese army recruiters watching public places looking for easy “targets” – young adolescent boys on their own. They either enticed the boys with promises of money, status, clothing, a job and free education, or threatened them with arrest for loitering or not being in possession of an identity card and offered military service as the alternative. In other cases, young boys were intimidated, coerced and even beaten into “volunteering” for the army, according to the report.
“Children are easier to control in the military,” explains Kyi, who came to Canada as a refugee in 2000. He was released from a Burmese prison after Amnesty International took up his case and started a letter-writing campaign to free him.
“The Burmese military brainwashes kids and some of them even call the commander ‘father.’ They are told that they are fighting Communists and that is how they order the soldiers to kill students.”
Brutal Treatment of Children
Human Rights Watch has issued reports for years claiming that children, some of them as young as eleven, were forcibly recruited, brutally treated during training, used as forced labour and made to participate in armed conflict. They also found children were used to commit human rights abuses against civilians and other child recruits.
“They understand ‘shoot’ and ‘kill,’ but they don’t understand what is going on,” says Kyi. “My former commander in the jungle was a former Burmese military commander who saw his brother in a demonstration and decided [the Burmese military] was not the right thing for him. Unfortunately he is dead now.”
Several armed opposition groups have also been listed for recruiting and using child soldiers, as was the case with Kyi. While the UN Security Council has stated on several occasions that it will consider sanctions against Burma specifically targeting the military, no action has yet been taken.
Sold to be Soliders - Human Rights Watch report
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