Burma's military recruiting 10-year-olds

Burma’s military government, already under fire for its violent crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators, is recruiting children as young as 10 into its armed forces, a US human rights group said today.

Government recruiters target children because of “continued army expansion, high desertion rates and a lack of willing volunteers”, a 135-page report by New York-based Human Rights Watch says.

“Military recruiters and civilian brokers receive cash payments and other incentives for each new recruit, even if the recruit clearly violates minimum age or health standards,” it said.

Ye Htut, deputy director general of Burma’s Information Ministry, said the claims were “another example of biased reporting by this organisation, which based its report on the baseless accusations and exaggerated lies of insurgent groups on the border”.

Allegations that both the government and ethnic groups use child soldiers are long-standing, and have been acknowledged by both sides in recent years as the United Nations has highlighted the issue.

The newest accusations come as Burma’s ruling junta faces international criticism for its violent crackdown on peaceful pro-democracy marches in the past month.

Thousands were arrested and the government acknowledges 10 deaths among the protesters, though critics say the real number might be closer to 200.

The junta in Burma has long been accused of other abuses, including brutal treatment of ethnic minority villagers caught up in counter-insurgency campaigns, and the use of forced labour.

The report, 'Sold to Be Soldiers: The Recruitment and Use of Child Soldiers in Burma', also claimed ethnic guerrilla groups in Burma used child soldiers, though on a much smaller scale. Ethnic minorities along the country’s borders have been fighting for autonomy for decades.

Human Rights Watch says recruiters routinely falsify enlistment records to list children as 18, the minimum legal age for service. It cited the case of a boy who said he was forcibly recruited at 11, though he was only 4ft 3in, and weighed less than five stone.

According to the report, child soldiers are typically given 18 weeks of military training and some are then sent to combat zones.

“Child soldiers are sometimes forced to participate in human rights abuses, such as burning villages and using civilians for forced labour,” said Human Rights Watch.

“Those who attempt to escape or desert are beaten, forcibly recruited, or imprisoned.”

Burma’s armed forces had had regulations since 1973 forbidding forced enlistment and the recruitment of minors, said the information ministry’s Ye Htut, responding to a summary of the new report.

“If the authorities find out that a recruit was recruited against his will or he is under 18 years, the responsible personnel will be tried according to the military law,” he said.

Between 2004 and August 2007, 141 minors were dismissed from the military and returned to their parents, and disciplinary action was taken against nearly 30 military personnel for breaking recruitment rules, Ye Htut said.

The Human Rights Watch report agreed with UN assessments that ethnic guerrilla armies, both allied with and against the government, also used child soldiers, though several had taken measures to curb the practice.

The Karen National Union, whose military arm, the Karen National Liberation Army, was cited by Human Rights Watch for improving its record, said it punished officers who used child soldiers.