The Story of a Child Soldier

By SAW YAN NAING
The Irrawaddy News

PAPUN, Karen State—Sixteen-year-old Htun Htun Oo, looked relieved and happy when he learned he would be leaving the conflict zone controlled by the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) soldiers on the Burmese bank of the Salween River, opposite Thailand’s Mae Hong Son province.

The prospect of going to study instead of facing more military duties gave him new hope.

Told he could leave, Htun Htun Oo quickly packed his clothes in a sling bag, put on a watch, applied some Thanaka (Burmese traditional makeup) to his cheeks and said goodbye to the Karen soldiers who had temporarily taken care of him.
A young soldier with the Burmese army (Not Htun Htun Oo)

Speaking quietly against a background of birdsong and eddying water in the fast flowing Salween River, he told us his story before he left.

Htun Htun Oo escaped from the Burmese Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) 341 in Papun District in northern Karen State in July, making his way through the forest eastwards, even though he was not sure whether he would be killed when he reached KNLA-controlled territory.

Before he escaped, senior officers had regularly warned the troops that they would be tortured and killed if they surrendered to Karen rebels.

“Whether I lived or died didn’t matter anymore,” Htun Htun Oo said, “All I wanted to do was escape. I was ready for anything so long as I didn’t have to stay another day in that battalion.”

He said that he had to sleep rough in the jungle for three days before he reached the KNLA area.

“When I arrived on the Burmese side of the Salween River, I started to swim across,” he said, pointing to the waters swollen with monsoon rain streaming by.

“The water was too fast and I was drifting downstream, trying to swim,” he said, “Luckily a boat came along and picked me up.

“The Burmese officers would continually punish us and order us to do additional duties—we were no better than slaves,” he said.

“They didn’t give us enough food, and when we were too exhausted to follow orders, they liked to beat us. I was beaten three times for falling asleep when I was on guard duty at night.

“Every morning we had to get up at five and do military exercises,” Htun Htun Oo said. “Around three in the afternoon we would be ordered into the jungle to cut bamboo and collect leaves to make temporary shelters.

“We didn’t get enough time to sleep as we had guard duty at night. I couldn’t take it any more and decided to run away,” he said.

Htun Htun Oo earned 21,000 kyat [US $19] a month, but said he only got about 7,000 kyat [$6.40] after senior officers made deductions.

Htun Htun Oo said he saw child soldiers in other Burmese battalions, and he knew of eight other child soldiers in LIB 341 alone.

During military training, he said he spoke with a younger comrade called Ye Thew, who told him he had been sexually abused by higher ranking officers on several occasions.

Htun Htun Oo was seized by the Burmese army at a railway station in June 2007 while he was on his way to visit his uncle, who was a policeman in Rangoon,.

“A Burmese soldier asked me for my ID card, but I didn’t have one because I hadn’t applied for one by then. So they took me away,” he said.

Htun Htun Oo’s case is not untypical. The recruitment of child soldiers in Burma is still widely practiced by the Burmese army, according to Aye Myint, a leader of Guiding Star, a Burma-based social and labor rights group.

In the last three months, more than 20 children who say they were forced by Burmese officials to serve as soldiers were helped by Aye Myint’s group and the International Labour Organization to return to their families.

Commenting in early August on reports that the Burmese government had released some children from the military, the UN’s special representative for children and armed conflict, Radhika Coomaraswamy, was quoted by Reuters as saying: “We still are not sure how comprehensive that is and the extent of it. And so I am dispatching a team [to Burma] at the end of this month.”

The team would hold talks with the Burmese regime and rebel groups, said Coomaraswamy.
In a report in June, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon accused the Burmese military government and “ethnic rebel militias” of recruiting children to serve as fighters, saying that there had been “grave violations” against children in Burma.

According to a 2002 report by the Washington-based Human Rights Watch, there is no precise figure of the number of child soldiers serving in the Burmese army, but it was estimated that 35-45 percent of new recruits were children, some as young as 11, who were forcibly conscripted and brutally treated during training.

The report estimated that as many as 70,000 recruits were under the age of 18.
Htun Htun Oo said, “I have only one message for the youth of Burma—don’t even think about joining the Burmese army. It is like being in a living hell. You will go so far from home that you will forget it even exists.”

Asked about the Burmese regime’s announcement that the military did not recruit child soldiers, he said, “They are lying.”

READ MORE---> The Story of a Child Soldier...

Junta Conscripts Ethnic Youths

By LAWI WENG
The Irrawaddy News

About 70 Chin teenagers in Matupi Township in Chin State in western Burma have been forced into military training, according to Chin sources.chi

Local sources said soldiers from Infantry Battalion No.304, which is based in Matupi Township, ordered nine villages to select at least eight youths over 18-years-old per village for military training.

“People have to work in the fields to grow paddy at this time of year [the rainy season]. We are short of food and no one wants to go for military training,” said a Chin resident in Matupi.

Matupi is one of seven townships in Chin State facing food shortages due to plagues of rats destroying crops.

The World Food Program (WFP) in Rangoon has reported that about 85 percent of the population in Chin State is in debt after borrowing money to buy food.

Similar conscription took place in the northern part of Ye Township in Mon State in southern Burma in July, when Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) No. 343 ordered 200 youths to go for military training, according to Lawi Oung, a resident in Ye Township.

“The participants were taught how to beat people, how to handle riots and how to hold guns,” he said. “The training took one month, but the participants were only given fake bamboo guns during training.”

The families of those who refused to join had to pay 6,000 kyat [US $5.50] for exemption, according to Lawi Oung.

The villages where conscription took place are in a “black area,” which is close to a Mon rebel-controlled area, according to Thailand-based the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM).

Analysts said that the junta is training militias to prevent any uprising in the planned 2010 election, but they may also be preparing them for use as frontline troops when they attack Mon rebels.

Junta troops have conducted similar military training in several townships in Shan Sate in Northern Burma in recent months, according to the Chiang Mai-based Shan Herald Agency for News.

About 100 youths in Muse Township near the Chinese border in northern Shan State were forced to undergo military training.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Thursday, Saengjuen, an editor for the Shan Herald Agency for News, said: “an estimated 1000 people have been forced into training. Many are former members of forces loyal to the drug lord Khun Sa [who died in Rangoon in 2007].

“More people have been conscripted this year for basic military training, and to be taught how to collect news, organize campaigns and prepare military operations,” he said.

Saengjuen believes such militia troops will be used to attack armed ethnic ceasefire groups in Shan State, such as those in the Wa, Kokang, and Mong La areas, if tension keeps mounting.

Meanwhile, about 500 private mercenaries from Tang Yan Township in eastern Shan State were forced to join junta troops in preparation for a possible attack on the United Wa State Army (UWSA).

Tension between junta troops and ethnic ceasefire groups has been mounting after the latter refused to transform their troops into border guard forces in Shan State in July.

READ MORE---> Junta Conscripts Ethnic Youths...

Rise in child labour feared over Thai policy

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) - The Thai Government’s policy of not registering families of migrant workers is likely to escalate the problems of child labour, a social worker said.

Executive Director of the Labour Rights Promotion Network Foundation, Sompong Srakaew, who works in close tandem with migrants in Samut Sakorn Province, told Mizzima that the recent government policy to register and verify the nationality of migrant workers from neighbouring countries, particularly Burma, but excluding their family members, may create more child labour issues.

“Many of them have to tell lies that they are older, than their actual age, so that the Thai authorities let them live and work in Thailand, with their parents. Some of them were unable to go to school, because they had to take care of their younger sisters or brothers and help their parents to work,” he said.

In 2004, the Thai government had set up registration for family members of migrants, but later it cancelled this policy. During that time there were about 3,000 migrant children in Samut Sakorn Province, one of the biggest towns in Thailand, which has a thriving fisheries industry.

However, the total number of migrant children is expected to increase to 10, 000, only in Samut Sakorn.

Activists are of the opinion that the registration of these children would show the number of children, who should be in school and then medical and other necessary public facilities could be provided for them.

A 10-year-old girl in Mahachai district of Samut Sakorn told Mizzima that she was attending a local school, but after her sister was born her mother needed her to help at home.

“In addition, the school I went to was quite far from home, so it was difficult to continue,” she said.

The girl also said that in the morning she works at a small frozen prawn factory, while her mother also works there and in the evening she helps her mother take care of her sister.

Many children have to live alone, while their parents are working. Normally these are small rooms in apartments, where hundreds of workers live as a community.

The Thai authorities allow young people above 15, to work in some businesses, but a large number of children aged under 15 told the employers that they were 15 years old. Some employers also reported the child worker’s ages to the authorities and let them work, generally in bad conditions, both in below standard payment and environment.

Local authorities estimated that current statistics of workers in the province is up to 300, 000. Mainly they work in fishery industries, such as prawn shell peeling and cleaning seafood for frozen business. The biggest groups of workers are ethnic Mon, Burmese and some are Kachin and Karen people.

READ MORE---> Rise in child labour feared over Thai policy...

Canadian gov't halts deportation order of former child soldier from Burma

Nay Myo Hein, a former Burmese child soldier.
Photo Credit: Jason Warick, The StarPhoenix

OTTAWA (CP) — The federal government has stayed the deportation of a Burmese refugee who fled his country because he was he was forced into the military when he was a child.

The Canadian Friends of Burma says Nay Myo Hein was supposed to be deported to his homeland, also known as Myanmar, on Tuesday after his application to the federal Immigration and Refugee Board for refugee status was rejected.

But the group says Immigration Minister Jason Kenney and Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan intervened and have agreed to let the 25-year-old Saskatoon resident stay in Canada on humanitarian grounds.

Friends executive director Tin Maung Htoo called is a "compassionate gesture" by Canada and thanked the ministers for their actions.

The group says it independently verified that Hein escaped at age 13 from forced service in the Burmese military and spent the next eight years in hiding before coming to Canada two years ago.

The group says Hein would be in "grave danger" if he had to return because he has participated in demonstrations against the Burmese military and has become an active member of the exiled Burma democracy movement.

READ MORE---> Canadian gov't halts deportation order of former child soldier from Burma...

Ex-Burmese child soldier in final fight to avoid deportation

By Jason Warick, Saskatoon StarPhoenix

SASKATOON (Vancouver Sun)— A former child soldier now living in Saskatoon has one final hearing Friday morning before a federal court judge in his fight against deportation, say advocates.

If Nay Myo Hein is sent back as scheduled next week to Burma, a southeast Asian military dictatorship also known as Myanmar, his Saskatoon lawyer and others say that as a deserter, he'll be imprisoned or worse.

He would be the first known case of a Burmese refugee claimant deported from Canada, said Kevin McLeod of the group Canadian Friends of Burma.

"He's at risk of being imprisoned, tortured and killed," Saskatoon lawyer Chris Veeman said Thursday. Veeman was meeting with Hein, Hein's mother-in-law Zin Marlin and friend Khaing Kyaw to plan for the federal court Friday.

While pursuing these final attempts at a legal solution, Veeman, McLeod and many in Saskatoon's 1,000-strong Burmese community are also appealing to Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan to intervene and grant a stay on deportation. McLeod said his group contacted the minister's office Thursday but no response has been received yet. The minister's office could not be reached late Thursday afternoon.

Hein, who repairs car bumpers in Saskatoon and has been in a common-law relationship with a Burmese immigrant in the city for the past year, said he was kidnapped by military officials while waiting for a train on the outskirts of the capital of Rangoon.

During his "training," he was beaten and abused. "I'm against killing and wanted to get as far away as possible from them," he told officials at a Canadian hearing, where he represented himself.

He fled to the Burmese countryside and finished high school with the assistance of his aunt. He lived in constant fear of being recaptured. When a fellow deserter was arrested and sentenced to prison, he decided to flee.

Hein paid an "agent" to obtain travel documents and bribe airport officials. He flew to Columbia, but was not allowed to stay. He made his way into a shipping container, which stopped in New Orleans.

American officials would not let him get off the ship. It sailed to Cuba, but Hein feared the Cubans would send him back to Burma, so he stayed put. After more than a month on board, the ship docked in New Brunswick on New Year's Eve, 2007.

Hein fled to a relative's house in Moncton before filing for refugee status.

He came to Saskatoon shortly after to live with an uncle, got a job and met his now common-law wife, Haymar Zin.

"I like Saskatoon. It's okay," Hein said. "I am very afraid. I don't want to go back to Burma. It just depends on the judge and the government."

Hein's claim was rejected a the first stage because the judge didn't believe his story. Another official didn't believe he faced danger if returned, according to Hein's advocates.

READ MORE---> Ex-Burmese child soldier in final fight to avoid deportation...

UN to tackle Burma’s child soldier problem

(DVB)–A United Nations team will visit Burma to pressure the ruling junta and armed ethnic groups to end use of child soldiers, as concern remains about the prevalence of the practice in the country.

The announcement follows a report issued in June by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon which said there had been "grave violations" against children in Burma, with both the Burmese military and ethnic rebel militias guilty of recruitment.

The report accused the junta of failing to provide proof of measures it said it was taking to end use of child soldiers, and of blocking UN access to rebel groups.

Radhika Coomaraswamy, UN special representative for children and armed conflict, said on Tuesday that there had been some positive developments and that the Burmese government had been demobilising some children.

"We still are not sure how comprehensive that is and the extent of it," she told Reuters. "And so I am dispatching a team [to Burma] at the end of this month."

Human rights groups have criticised the government for not doing enough to tackle the problem, which they say is being masked over.

“The current situation seems to be pretty much the same; recruitment of child soldiers is still continuing but more underground,” said David Matheson from Human Rights Watch.

“Even though the [government] has taken some steps, it is woefully insufficient to the scale of the problem and is just not good enough.”

He went on to explain that the difficulty with the UN is that they have to work through the ruling State Peace and Development Council, which in 2004 constructed a committee ostensibly to address the problem.

But, says, Mathieson, it is a “public relations exercise to assuage the concerns of the international community that they’re actually doing anything.”

“I think any investigative mission by the UN has to see through those efforts and realise that a couple of token announcements and returns of some children which have been demobilised are way below the scale of the problem which we think there is,” he said.

Recrutiment of children under 15 into the army has been recognised as a war crime by the International Criminal Court.

Burmese law states that no child under the age of 18 shall be recruited into the army.

However, in a Human Rights Watch report, ‘Sold to be Soldiers’, it is reported that commanders rarely check documentation.

Furthermore, army generals place ambitious recruitment targets on commanders who are faced with the dilemma of either losing their job or recruiting children.

The punishment for recruiting children is small in the face of being demoted to a lower rank.

In July, one of Burma’s main rebel groups, the Shan State Army (SSA), signed a memorandum of understanding with Abolish Slavery and International Operations Centre for Children (IOCC), vowing to prevent the use of child soldiers in return for outside aid to increase their international credibility.

The United Wa State army, Burma’s largest rebel force, is reported to have the most child soldiers, second to the Burmese national army.

The Kachin Independence army is the only armed group to recruit girls, while the SSA and the Karen National Liberation Army have policies against recruiting children under 18, but do not turn away children who actively seek to join.

Yesterday, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a landmark resolution 1882 on Children and Conflict.

The council called upon the Secretary General to expand his “list of shame” beyond recruitment and use of children.

The list will now include countries that are responsible for the killing and maiming of children as well as those who perpetrate grave sexual violence against children in wartime.

Reporting by Alex Ellgee

READ MORE---> UN to tackle Burma’s child soldier problem...

Report on child soldier released

by Phanida

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The unabated recruitment of child soldiers into the Burmese Army has been exposed in a report released by the Thai-Burmese border based ‘Yoma 3’ Burmese News Agency today.

The agency said, it took about one and-a-half years to compile the 72-page ‘Child Soldiers: Burma’s Sons of Sorrow’, which was released on Wednesday at a press conference held along the Thai-Burmese border.

The report includes interviews with two child soldier deserters, a sergeant and four parents of child soldiers forcibly recruited by the army.

“The junta always claims to the international community and UN that it never recruits child soldiers into the army. They also always claim that organizations in exile are disseminating concocted stories to western countries. We wish to let people know clearly what the true facts are,” Nyein Lu, editor of the Yoma 3 told Mizzima.

The report also presented news and photographs of the No. 1 Recruit Centre at Danyinkone Township in Rangoon Division, No. 2 in Mandalay, No. 3 in Yemethin and No. 9 Basic Military Training School in Zay Chaung village of Thaton Township in Mon state.

The group said, the survey and the facts and figures in the report were provided by activists inside Burma, military personnel in the Burma Army and former soldiers.

Yoma 3 news agency was founded in 1998 by pro-democracy and human rights activists, who fled to the border after the 1988 uprising. The report is Yoma 3’s second report on child soldiers.

Despite persistent allegations made by the UN, ILO and Human Rights organizations on the use of child soldiers by the Burmese Army, the junta has always blatantly denied.

In the UN Secretary General’s report released in December 2007, Ban Ki-moon says besides the Burmese Army, there are nine more ethnic armed forces, which also use child soldiers in their respective armed units.

Following severe criticism, Burma’s military rulers in February 2007 allowed the International Labour Organization (ILO) to open a liaison in Rangoon to accept complaints of child soldiers and to help in eliminating the use of children in the army.

According to complaints received by Mizzima, the junta often recruits children mainly between the age of 14-16 from poor family backgrounds in Rangoon, Irrawaddy and Magwe Divisions by using pressure tactics including summoning by quota from each village, intimidation and incentives by way of money.

In 2005, the Yoma 3, published its first child soldier report in collaboration with the Thailand-based ‘Human Rights Education Institute of Burma’ (HREIB).

The group said, they will also present the report to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, Asia Human Right Council and Human Right Watch.

READ MORE---> Report on child soldier released...

Neither War Nor Peace -

by Luke Dowdney

international comparisons of children and youth in organised armed violence

Download full book here

Neither War Nor Peace

READ MORE---> Neither War Nor Peace -...

Burma rebels vow to stop using child soldiers

By Mark Tran

Shan insurgents get foreign aid in return for halting use of children in country with highest number of underage conscripts

The Guardian UK -One of Burma's main rebel groups has pledged to stop using child soldiers in return for outside aid in an effort to enhance its international credibility.

Leaders of the Shan State army (SSA), one of several ethnic insurgent groups battling the country's military junta, have signed a memorandum of understanding with Abolish Slavery and International Operations Centre for Children (IOCC), two western non-governmental organisations, to prevent minors serving in its forces.

Burma has the highest number of child soldiers in the world – about 70,000. A Human Rights Watch report in 2002 found widespread forced recruitment of boys as young as 11. Subsequent reports say the number of child soldiers in Burma is largely unchanged despite international condemnation.

International law prohibits the recruitment of children under 15 and the use of child soldiers has been recognised as a war crime under the statute for the international criminal court.

In Burma, the national army is the biggest culprit. Flouting the country's own laws that prohibit any recruitment of under 18s, the army apprehends boys at public places such as markets and bus stations, using threats and violence to force them to join. Once trained, children as young as 12 have been sent to fight against ethnic insurgent groups.

Rebel groups also forcibly conscript children. The United Wa State army, the biggest rebel force, has the largest number. The Kachin Independence army is the only armed group to recruit girls. The SSA and the Karen National Liberation army have policies against recruiting children under 18, but do not turn away children who actively seek to join.

Christian Elliott, of the IOCC, who signed the agreement with Lieutenant Colonel Kon Jern, a SSA commander, said the reason behind the insurgents' anti-child soldiers pledge was international credibility.

"They are looking for brownie points any way they can and in return we will provide them with educational material for teachers and children, including books writing materials, computers and distant education opportunities," Elliott said.

The Shan area once used to be a major producer of heroin but the rebel groups have made an effort to stamp out production as part of the drive for international respectability.

Elliott, who made the arduous trek into Burma to sign the agreement, said the SSA has between 2,000 and 3,000 soldiers aged 16-18.

The rebel group has also agreed to provide evidence of human rights abuses by the Burmese army in the form of video and photographs. The material is to be displayed on the Abolish Slavery website in support of the SSA's to help the people of the Shan state, in the east of the country.

Home to several ethnic armed groups, Shan remains largely outside central government control.

READ MORE---> Burma rebels vow to stop using child soldiers...

Burmese Army Still Recruiting Under-age Soldiers

By LAWI WENG
The Irrawaddy News

The Burmese army is still recruiting under-age soldiers in contravention of a United Nations call to stop the practice, according to child labor activists in Burma.

In the latest incident, a 16-year-old youth was taken late at night by an army truck from Light Infantry Division 77, based in Pegu.

Aye Myint, a leading labor activist in Pegu Division, said the youth was taken from a local restaurant where he worked. His parents were told by an officer at the Pegu army base that the youth had been sent to a recruitment center in Rangoon’s Mingalardon Township.

Aye Myint said the youth’s family has lodged a letter of complaint with the International Labour Organization (ILO) office in Rangoon on June 17. The Irrawaddy tried
unsuccessfully to contact the office on Wednesday.

Kyin Toe, chairman of the National League for Democracy (NLD) in Twante Township, said another family had complained to his office that their under-age son had been recruited by the army.

Burma’s state-run media maintains that the government is screening recruits and releasing any found to be under age. It reported that 68 children were detected recently in various military training schools and were released to their parents or guardians.

The ILO says it has been instrumental, together with the International Committee of the Red Cross, in the release of 12 under-age recruits. A further 14 cases are still being processed.

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

The UN also says in its latest report on the situation that the Burmese military junta is still recruiting child soldiers. The report on “Children and Armed Conflict” was released this month.

Human rights groups say children are recruited at train stations, bus depots, tea shops, outside video halls and movie cinemas or even while walking home at night.

The groups say the young recruits are threatened and beaten if they refuse to agree to undergo military training. After their training, many are sent to areas where the army is in conflict with ethnic groups.

READ MORE---> Burmese Army Still Recruiting Under-age Soldiers...

Junta continues to recruit children into army: Rights defender

New Delhi (mizzima news) - Despite the Burmese junta’s claim of eliminating the use of children in the military, a human rights advocate said children in Burma are still recruited into the army and that he is currently advocating for the return of three children from the armed forces.

Aye Myint, a lawyer in Pegu town, who has helped in the return of several children from the army, said he is handling three cases of children being recruited in the army in recent weeks. He is now working for their return at the behest of their parents.

“I have just submitted a letter of complaint to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) for the return of three children from the army,” Aye Myint told Mizzima on Wednesday.

But since publicising the details of the cases could come in the way of the ILO and his efforts to negotiate with the Burmese authorities in helping the children return, he refused to provide details of the cases of the three children.

In a summary of the cases, Aye Myint said, it includes a boy of age 16 from Myingyan town of Mandalay division. The boy was reportedly working at a restaurant in Pegu town and was persuaded by an Army officer from Brigade 77 to join the army and was later taken away by the officer.

“No matter how the child is recruited, whether by persuasion, coercion, or threat, if a child under the age of 18 is recruited into the army, it is a violation. The army has the responsibility to return the kid because the kid is supposed to be in the classroom not carrying out military duties,” Aye Myint said.

Aye Myint, who by profession is a lawyer, has started fighting against the use of children in the military since 2006. And since March 2006, he said, with the help of the ILO, he was able to help 25 children return from the army.

On June 3, the junta claimed that it is taking steps in preventing and eliminating the use of children in the army by sending back eight minors to their parents from the military.

But Aye Myint as well as other human rights activists said the return was just a sham while the army continues recruiting children into the army.

Burma is a signatory to the United Nations Convention of the Rights of Child (CRC). While the convention prohibits children of age 15 and below from recruiting into the army, the Burmese military law specifies that children below 18 cannot be recruited into the army.

But against these laws, the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s 2007 report states that children in Burma are still being used as soldiers not only the Burmese Army but also by non-state armed forces, referring to ethnic armed rebel groups.

The report, which was submitted to the UN Security Council, listed nine armed groups from Burma including the Burmese Army among the 54 armed groups around the world that continues to use children in their armies.

READ MORE---> Junta continues to recruit children into army: Rights defender...

Serious Violations against Children in Burma: Ban

By LALIT K JHA
The Irrawaddy News

WASHINGTON — UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday reported grave violations against children in Burma including credible reports of recruitment and use of children by some government military units and several ethnic armed groups.

Expressing serious concern over the plight of Burmese children, the secretary-general in a report to the UN Security Council urged the Burmese military government to put into place a tighter mechanism to prevent the military recruitment of children.

Ban also urged the junta to demobilize unconditionally all children who participated in any capacity in its armed forces, in coordination with the UN country task force on monitoring and reporting.

“The secretary-general stresses the need for the governments concerned to facilitate dialogue between the United Nations and the Karen National Union and Karenni National Progressive Party for the purposes of signing an action plan in accordance with [relevant] Security Council resolutions,” Marie Okabe, deputy spokesperson for the secretary–general, told reporters at UN headquarters in New York.

In the report, Ban urged Burmese authorities “as a matter of priority” to “redress the prevailing culture of impunity, to launch investigations into all incidents of recruitment and use of children, and to prosecute people responsible for such acts under the Penal Code.”

“Building on the limited progress thus far, the government should, with immediate effect, cease the arrest, harassment and imprisonment of children under the age of 18 for desertion and/or attempting to leave the army and continue to work with the country task force to monitor such cases and to ensure the swift and unconditional surrender of children,” Ban said.

Besides government military units, the secretary-general identified several ethnic armed groups involved in recruitment of children: the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, Kachin Independence Army, Karen National Liberation Army Peace Council, Karen National Liberation Army, Karenni Army, Karenni National People’s Liberation Front, Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, Shan State Army-South and Shan National Population Liberation Organization and United Wa State Army.

Ban noted in the report that there was a continued lack of humanitarian access to Burma, particularly in conflict zones and ceasefire areas, was an impediment to providing much needed humanitarian assistance. He urged the junta to ensure full, unhindered and safe access for children and to allow free passage for the delivery of UN humanitarian assistance in all parts of the country.

READ MORE---> Serious Violations against Children in Burma: Ban...

Teenager recruited by Burmese army - Kyaw Myo Paing

(DVB)–A teenager who went missing after being arrested last year in Burma’s central Bago division has been recruited by the army, his family said.

Tin Myo Naing, a resident in Latpan Thonegwa, and his wife San San have been looking for their 16-year-old son Kyaw Myo Paing since he disappeared on 16 December last year after being arrested for selling pork without a license.

The couple received a letter said to be from Kyaw Myo Paing on Tuesday which he had dropped from a train heading south from the capital, Naypyidaw, as it passed their village.

The letter was found by a villager and brought to them.

“The letter has my son’s hand writing; he said he is now in the army and being transferred to Light Infantry Battalion 118 in Thahton, Mon state,” said Tin Myo Naing.

“He now has a new name, Kyaw Ko, and his serial number is 406290. He told me not to come find him [in Thahton] as the area is a harsh place to travel.”

“I don’t care how difficult it is to travel there. I’m still going there to find my son - I’ve been looking for over five months. I will find him and ask him what he wants to do.”

Yesterday the state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported on a ceremony held in Rangoon, attended by UNICEF and Save the Children, in which the army returned eight child soldiers to their parents.

Use of child soldiers contravenes even Burmese domestic law, although Human Rights Watch in 2002 named Burma as the world’s leading recruiter of child soldiers.

“If they’re releasing eight children, then great for those eight children, but that’s not all of them and a lot more needs to be done before the problem goes away,” said David Mathieson, Burma analyst at Human Rights Watch.

The issue has been cited by former senior legal adviser to the International Criminal Court (ICC), Morten Bergsmo, as a reason for bringing Burma’s ruling general, Than Shwe, to trial at the ICC.

Similarly, a report released last month by the Harvard Law School said that the situation for Burma’s child soldiers warranted significant attention from the UN Security Council.

The problem however is not confined to the government, with several of the armed opposition groups, including the Karen National Union, believed to also recruit child soldiers.

Reporting by Khin Hnin Htet and Francis Wade

READ MORE---> Teenager recruited by Burmese army - Kyaw Myo Paing...

Burmese army returns child soldiers

8 children back just a token from the generous army,
what about the other thousands,
will they be returned to their families within the next weeks?
What a nice show...Jeg

(DVB)–The Burmese army has reportedly handed eight child soldiers back to their families in a ceremony in Rangoon attended by international monitoring bodies such as UNICEF and Save the Children.

The ceremony, reported in the state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper, was conducted by the army-run Work Committee for Prevention against Recruitment of Minors, whose stated aim is to find and demobilise child soldiers in the military.

“We think this is a positive step by the army, and it was the first time we were invited to such an event,” said a spokesperson from UNICEF in Burma, who have been monitoring use of child soldiers in the country.

In 2002, Human Rights Watch named Burma’s ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) as the world’s leading recruiter of child soldiers.

The problem however is not confined to the government, with several of the armed opposition groups, including the Karen National Union, believed to also recruit child soldiers.

Use of child soldiers contravenes even Burmese domestic law, and has been cited by former senior legal adviser to the International Criminal Court (ICC), Morten Bergsmo, as a reason for bringing Burma’s ruling general, Than Shwe, to trial at the ICC.

Similarly, a report released last month by the Harvard Law School said that the situation for Burma’s child soldiers warranted significant attention from the UN Security Council.

“I think it [the ceremony] is about pretending that they’re actually doing something rather than really taking all the reforms that need to be taken,” said David Mathieson, Burma analyst at Human Rights Watch.

“If they’re releasing eight children, then great for those eight children, but that’s not all of them and a lot more needs to be done before the problem goes away,” he said, adding that the SPDC were looking for “congratulation” on the issue.

“But when it comes to the rights of the child you should never get congratulations for something like that because it never should have happened in the first place,” he said.

Reporting by Francis Wade

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Activists skeptical of release of child soldiers

by Salai Pi Pi

New Delhi (Mizzima) – State-run newspapers on Wednesday reported that eight minors who had joined the military of their own volition were returned to their parents, a rare case in military-ruled Burma, which is often criticized for forcibly recruiting children into the armed forces.

The junta’s mouthpiece New Light of Myanmar on Wednesday stated, “The Work Committee for Prevention Against Recruitment of Minors today handed over eight minors who joined the Tatmadaw [military] of their own accord to their parents.”

The incidence, however, was received with skepticism by rights activists, believing the move a “showpiece” and accusing the junta of secretly continuing to recruit children into the military.

Aye Myint, a lawyer from Pegu town advocating and fighting against the recruitment of child soldiers said the paper’s claims were contradictory to the prevailing situation, as he has received several parental complaints of children being recruited into the military.

He said just months ago family members of a child, who had reportedly gone missing in December, approached him explaining they had received a letter from their son saying he is now in a military camp in central Burma.

While unable to confirm the facts of the missing child, he said he is working on the case and will bring it to the attention of the liaison office of the International Labor Organisation in Rangoon, through which he has been able to rescue a number of boys from military camps in the past.

“The number of children being returned back to their parents would only be a small percentage of the total children in the military,” he emphasized.

Meanwhile, Aung Myo Min, Director of the exile-based Human Rights Education Institute of Burma (HREIB), welcomed the junta’s action of returning the eight kids to their parents but voiced concern for those who remain in the camps.

“Earlier the junta blatantly denied having children in their barracks, but this is a significant confession. It is definitely a progressive development,” affirmed Aung Myo Min.

He said HREIB has documented the presence and recruitment of child soldiers into the Burmese Army and expresses his hope that the junta will release additional children from their barracks.

But Aung Myo Minn said he is skeptical of the junta’s claim of the children joining the army upon their own will, because the Army is notorious for abducting children from the streets, railway and bus stations and other public places.

“We still need to raise the question on whether the children had joined the Army of their own will, as there are many incidents in which the regime has forcibly recruited children,” he said.

Additionally, Aung Myo Min expressed concern for the children’s mental and moral health due to their experiences in the military.

Additional reporting by Niangboi

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Pinheiro Calls for UN Commission of Inquiry

By ARKAR MOE
The Irrawaddy News

Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, the United Nations special reporteur on human rights in Burma from 2000 to 2008, has called for the Security Council to establish a commission of inquiry into crimes against humanity by the Burmese junta with a potential indictment by the International Criminal Court.

In a column in The New York Times on Wednesday, Pinheiro said the action could deter future crimes against humanity and address the widespread culture of impunity in Burma.

The UN official said Aung San Suu Kyi should be released immediately along with all of the country's political prisoners as part of a process of national reconciliation.

During the past 15 years, the Burmese Army has destroyed more than 3,300 villages in a systematic and widespread campaign to subjugate ethnic groups, Pinheiro said. UN reports indicate that Burmese soldiers have recruited child soldiers, used civilians as minesweepers and forced thousands of villagers into slave labor.

He said in December 2008 a Burmese soldier went into an ethnic Karen village in eastern Burma and abducted, raped and killed a 7-year-old girl.

A UN report in 2000 said that an estimated 625 women were systematically raped in Burma's Shan State over a five-year period.

Pinheiro said that since 1990, UN representatives have visited Burma 37 times in an attempt to facilitate dialogue with the political opposition and promote human rights.

The UN General Assembly and the UN Human Rights Council have passed more than 35 resolutions on Burma, he said, but the UN Security Council has yet to pass a single critical resolution. Permanent members of the Security Council have the right of veto, easily preventing the Security Council from taking critical actions against the Burmese government. China, Russia and India are frequent supporters of Burma.

Meanwhile, a global internet campaign was launched on Tuesday with support from world celebrities for detained pro-democracy leader Suu Kyi (www.64forSuu .org). Video, text, images and twitter messages are available.

Also, human rights campaigners are encouraging well-wishers to enter 64-word messages of support for Suu Kyi before her June 19 birthday on the "64 words for Aung San Suu Kyi" Web site (www.64forsuu.com).

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown sent birthday wishes to Suu Kyi on Wednesday, joining the online campaign.

Brown wrote: "I add my voice to the growing chorus of those demanding your release. For too long the world has failed to act in the face of this intolerable injustice. That is now changing. The clamor for your release is growing across Europe, Asia and the entire world. We must do all we can to make this birthday the last you spend without your freedom.”

The online campaign, launched on Wednesday, has already received more than 1,400 messages of support for the pro-democracy leader, Web designer Rachel Collinson told Reuters.

Critics have denounced Suu Kyi's trial as a legal charade designed to keep her in detention during the 2010 national election.

Eleven Nobel Prize Peace laureates appealed to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in an open letter on May 18, urging him to take immediate action against the imprisonment of fellow laureate Suu Kyi.

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Security Council Silent on Burma’s Child Victims

By THALIF DEEN/ IPS WRITER
The Irrawaddy News

UNITED NATIONS — The UN Security Council, which has remained virtually paralyzed on Palestine because of strong Western support for Israel, is considered equally ineffective on Burma (Myanmar) because of Chinese and Russian backing for the military junta in that politically troubled Southeast Asian nation.

A 60-page study by the New York-based Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict released here says it is time for the Security Council to "move swiftly" to protect the tens of thousands of Burmese children who are "raped, abducted and recruited as soldiers by the country's military and non-state armed groups (NSAGs)."

Asked why the Security Council continues to remain silent on Burma, Julia Freedson, director of Watchlist, told IPS there are several possible reasons.

"Monitoring reports being sent to the Security Council, through official UN channels about violations against children, are dismal," she said.

This is in part because authorities in Burma, and other key countries such as Thailand, block access by the United Nations to important segments of the country, thereby preventing documentation, she added.

However, many reliable sources from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have produced trustworthy documentation of sexual violence, killing and maiming, forced displacement and other violations which the Security Council should give more weight to, Freedson added.

Last year, both China and Russia exercised a rare double veto against a Western-sponsored resolution critical of the military regime, officially dubbed the State Peace Development Council (SPDC).

The Chinese and Russian support has prevented any UN sanctions against the SPDC, which is battling ethnic minorities complaining of military aggression and human rights violations.

The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which Burma is a member, has opposed any political involvement in the armed conflict, which it considers an internal affair outside the purview of the Security Council.

Asked how confident she was that the Security Council will eventually take any action—in the context of the opposition from Russia and China—Freedson said: "The geopolitical factors are a concern."

However, she pointed out, the dynamic in the Council in 2009 is different than it was last year.

Following last week's open debate in the Security Council on Children and Armed Conflict, she said, "The sense is that there is now a deeper commitment to moving forward on the Council's obligations to hold perpetrators of violations against children accountable."

"We hope that Myanmar will not be an exception," Freedson added.

According to the Watchlist 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.

Armed forces have also occupied schools, recruited teachers and students for forced labor and planted landmines close to schools or on the paths to schools.

Asked how violations by the military junta compare with other countries, Freedson said violations in Burma are certainly on par with some of those countries that the international community considers the worst in the world like the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) or Afghanistan, where child mortality is comparable due to denial of humanitarian assistance and medical treatment by the Burmese authorities.

"On the issue of child soldiers, we don’t have precise figures because of lack of access for this type of monitoring, but trustworthy estimates have put the numbers in the tens of thousands," Freedson said.

If this is the case, she said, it could be among the highest, if not the highest number in the world.

At the same time, there are larger geopolitical factors inside the Security Council which have hampered action on Burma, Freedson said.

For example, the Security Council's special Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict deliberated for six months on their conclusions on Burma last year.

"It is our understanding that this was largely due to stalling tactics by China and others which do not want to see human rights issues in Myanmar discussed inside the Security Council," she said.

And when the Working Group finally issued their conclusions, they were disappointing and weak, she noted.

The Watchlist report includes several policy recommendations, including targeted measures on the Burmese government and relevant non-state armed groups, particularly if no real progress is achieved in ending the recruitment and use of children within a specified time frame. These sanctions should include travel bans, asset freezes or arms embargoes.

Meanwhile, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has been asked to provide information to the Security Council on all six grave violations called for under Resolution 1612, including sexual violence, attacks against schools, and denial of humanitarian assistance.

"Too much time has been wasted denying the extent of the crisis facing children in Myanmar's conflict zones," Freedson said. The United Nations must act now to protect these children and bring the perpetrators to justice, she added.

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British MPs urge UN to invoke R2P in Burma

by Mungpi

New Delhi (Mizzima)- Over 60 British Members of Parliament have called on the United Nations to form a commission of inquiry into crimes against humanity committed by Burma’s ruling junta and to invoke the principle of Responsibility to Protect (R2P) in relation to the crisis in Burma.

The MPs including the Former Foreign Office Ministers, Ian McCartney and Keith Vaz have signed an Early Day Motion (EDM), which was tabled by MP John Bercow, Co-Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Democracy in Burma, expressing concern at the deteriorating human rights situation in Burma.

The MPs, in the EDM, urged the UN to invoke the principle of Responsibility to Protect (R2P) in relation to the Burmese junta’s appalling human rights records particularly a military campaign against its ethnic nationalities.

The EMD “urges Her Majesty's Government, along with other governments, to propose the establishment of a commission of inquiry to investigate allegations of crimes against humanity and war crimes in Burma; and urges the UN to invoke the principle of Responsibility to Protect in relation to the crisis in Burma.”

Rights groups and activists accused Burma’s military government of using policies to terrorize its citizens, more severely in remote areas of the country, where ethnic minorities live, in order to maintain its stranglehold on power.

The Christian Solidarity Worldwide, a campaign group that has been lobbying for democratic change in Burma, in a statement on Thursday said the Burmese junta’s policies include the widespread use of rape as a weapon of war, forced labour, the use of human minesweepers, and child soldiers.

The junta’s army has also destroyed over 3,300 villages in eastern Burma since 1996, and launched attacks on civilians resulting in displacement of about a million people, the group said.

John Bercow, who had visited the Thailand-Burma border and the India-Burma border, where Burmese ethnics live in precarious states, said he had heard horrific stories from victims of human rights violations.

“I have sat face to face with victims of unspeakable torture, including women and children who have seen their loved ones murdered. They have looked me in the eye and pleaded for the world to hear their cry,” Bercow said in the statement.

“It is time their cries were answered and the junta's crimes investigated. The people of Burma urgently need the freedom and justice they have been denied for so long," he added.

The Early Day Motions are formal motions submitted for debate in the House of Commons in the British Parliament. While very few EDMs are actually debated, they highlight the extent of parliamentary support for a particular cause or view point.

Alexa Papadouris, CSW's Advocacy Director said their group calls on “the British Government and other Governments to take this call seriously and to initiate a commission of inquiry into the junta's crimes against humanity.”

The concept of R2P was adopted in 2005 World Summit, where governments and world leaders agreed that they have a responsibility to protect when a government is unable or unwilling to protect its civilians from genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing.

In implementing R2P, first peaceful measures can be adopted through the use of economic, political, diplomatic, and legal tools but if this fails the International community can use collective force through the UN Security Council under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, only as a last resort.

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British MP’s accuse junta of crimes against humanity

(DVB)–Over 60 British Members of Parliament, including two former Foreign Office ministers, have called for a United Nations commission of inquiry into crimes against humanity in Burma.

The Early Day Motion (EDM) tabled by John Bercow MP, Co-Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Democracy in Burma, urges the UN to act on the campaign of ethnic cleansing that the ruling State Peace and Development Council is carrying out against ethnic nationalities.

The EDM was supported by human rights campaign group, Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), and comes just two weeks before imprisoned opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is due for release from house arrest.

“CSW strongly urges the British government and other governments to take this call seriously and to initiate a commission of inquiry into the junta's crimes against humanity,” said Alexa Papadouris, advocacy director of CSW.

Human rights violations highlighted in the EDM include use of rape as a weapon of war, forced labour, the use of human minesweepers, child soldiers, and the imprisonment of over 2,100 political prisoners.

“I have visited the ethnic peoples on both the Thailand-Burma border and the India-Burma border with CSW, and have been shocked by the horrific stories I have heard from victims of this barbaric regime,“ said John Bercow.

The EDM coincides with a statement released on Wednesday by Thailand-based Burma Lawyers’ Council that said the extent and severity of crimes committed by the junta are enough to warrant accusations of war crimes and genocide.

Similarly, last month, former senior legal adviser to the International Criminal Court, Morten Bergsmo, stated that the Burmese army’s use of child soldiers could constitute a war crime.

Reporting by Rosalie Smith

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Right Group Focuses on Burmese Children

By THE IRRAWADDY

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. Today, these organizations form Watchlist's international Steering Committee.

—CARE International
—Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers
—International Save the Children Alliance
—Norwegian Refugee Council
—Women's Refugee Commission
—World Vision International

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.

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