Burma the Newest Hot Spot for Child Soldiers

Till last September, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) office in military-ruled Burma had received few complaints about children being forced to join the army. But that is no longer the case.

’We understand there are some people who operate as brokers. They use force or trickery to take children to recruiting officers,’’ he added. ‘’We have lodged complaints with the government and it has responded quickly, discharging the recruit and disciplining the recruiting officer.’’

A November 2007 report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) confirms the failure of the junta’s special committee to save children from the Tatmadaw. ‘’Children as young as 10 are being targeted by Burmese military recruiters and threatened with arrest or beaten if they refuse to join,’’ revealed the report by the New York-based global rights lobby.

The dismal tone of this report echoed a similar tone of a 2002 report by HRW dealing with the growing number of child soldiers in Burma. That report, ‘My gun was as tall as me’, estimated that ‘’70,000 or more of the Burma army’s estimated 350,000 soldiers may be children.’’