Despite Promises: Child Soldiers in Burma’s SPDC Armed Forces

Three years have passed since the Human Rights Education Institute of Burma (HREIB) decided to take on the issue of child soldiers.

This decision was made upon discovering the magnitude of the situation inside Burma as reflected in stories told by former child soldiers. Along with these former child soldiers, HREIB shares a vision of a world in which all children are protected from armed conflict. Many governments around the world are committed to promoting and protecting child rights and have recently denounced the use and recruitment of child soldiers. In 2005 the United Nations Security Council passed UN Resolution 1612 calling on governments and armed groups to immediately stop using and recruiting child soldiers. Nevertheless, tens of thousands of children are still involved in armed conflicts around the world, particularly in Burma. Despite promises from the military government in Burma, children are still being recruited and used in government armed forces.

This report outlines the trends and developments regarding the use and recruitment of child soldiers in Burma’s government armed forces and is based on research conducted by HREIB and Yoma (3) News Group. This report seeks to update the international community about the situation of child soldiers in Burma with particular consideration of the promises made by the military government’s Committee for the Prevention of Military Recruitment of Under-age Children, which was founded in January, 2004. Research clearly shows that this committee has not, in any substantial way, contributed to ending the use and recruitment of child soldiers in Burma.

On behalf of HREIB, I gratefully acknowledge contributions from Yoma (3) News. I wish to thank Michael Paller and Anna Rose for helping me write this report. Thanks are also due to Theresa Limpin of the Asia Regional Resource Center (ARRC), Ryan Silverio, of the Southeast Asia Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, and Joe Becker of Human Rights Watch (Asia) for their suggestions. Also I wish to thank Kristen Beifus for her wise editorial advice.

I would also like to acknowledge all of the HREIB staff and trainers who supported this effort and special thanks to our research team, who for security reasons cannot be named.

Aung Myo Min
Director, HREIB
September , 2006