Myanmar Government Recruits Thousands of Children to Military

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October 31, 2007 3:56 PM

The Myanmar military government is forcibly recruiting thousands of children, some as young as age 10, into its armed forces to make up for high desertion rates, according to a Human Rights Watch report released today.

"Children have become commodities," said Jo Becker of Human Rights Watch. "The government of Burma is one of the world's worst perpetrators when it comes to recruitment of children into the military."

Human rights advocates have been calling for an end to recruitment of child soldiers in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, for years.

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P.W. Singer, author of "Children at War" and a Brookings Institute fellow, said Myanmar has one of the highest number of child soldiers in the world, more than 75,000 in 2005. About 45 percent of the government's recruits in 2005 were under the age of 18, Singer said.

The military's continued expansion has put strong pressure on recruiters, who human rights groups say target young boys to fulfill recruitment quotas and replace deserters.

Financial incentives for military recruiters have exacerbated the problem. Every time a recruiter brings in recruits, he receives cash and bags of rice, according to Becker. She says some civilians have volunteered to recruit young boys for payment as well. 

Human Rights Watch interviewed 20 current and former soldiers who were recruited as children.  Nineteen of them said 30 percent of the trainees were under the age of 18.

In the state-run press, the Myanmar military government, known as the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), has repeatedly denied that they have recruited children into the military.

In 2004, SPDC formed a high-level committee to address the problem of child recruitment, which according to Human Rights Watch, turned out to be a publicity stunt.

"This was strictly for public relations," said Becker, who noted that fewer children have been released from the army since 2004 than before the committee was formed.

The Myanmar Embassy did not respond to requests for comment.

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