Facing a military staffing crisis, the Burmese government is forcibly recruiting many children, some as young as age 10, into its armed forces, Human Rights Watch said in a report released Tuesday.
According to the report, Burmese military recruiters target children in order to meet unrelenting demands for new recruits due to continued army expansion, high desertion rates and a lack of willing volunteers.
Non-state armed groups, including ethnic-based insurgent groups, also recruit and use child soldiers, though in far smaller numbers.
KØB OG SALG AF BØRNESOLDATER
– The brutality of Burma’s military government goes beyond its violent crackdown on peaceful protestors, said Jo Becker, children’s rights advocate for Human Rights Watch.
– Military recruiters are literally buying and selling children to fill the ranks of the Burmese armed forces, she added.
Based on an investigation in Burma, Thailand and China, the 135-page report, “Sold to Be Soldiers: The Recruitment and Use of Child Soldiers in Burma,” found that 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.
TRUSLER OG VOLD
One boy told Human Rights Watch that he was forcibly recruited at age 11, despite being only 1.3 meters tall and weighing less than 31 kilograms.
Officers at recruitment centers routinely falsify enlistment records to list children as 18, the minimum legal age for recruitment.
Recruiters target children at train and bus stations, markets and other public places, and often threaten them with arrest if they refuse to join the army. Some children are beaten until they agree to “volunteer.”
According to Human Rigths Watch, the government’s senior generals tolerate the recruitment of children and fail to punish perpetrators (lovbrydere, red.).
In this environment, army recruiters traffic children at will.
TVINGES TIL OVERGREB
Child soldiers typically receive 18 weeks of military training. Some are sent into combat situations within days of their deployment to battalions.
Child soldiers are sometimes forced to participate in human rights abuses, such as burning villages and using civilians for forced labor.
Those who attempt to escape or desert are beaten, forcibly re-recruited or imprisoned.
TIDLIGERE SOLDATER: BØRN OVERALT
All of the former soldiers interviewed by Human Rights Watch reported the presence of children in their training units.
Thousands of children are present in the army’s ranks, although their prevalence varies considerably by battalion.
Particularly in some newly formed battalions, children reportedly constitute a large percentage of privates.
Human Rights Watch expressed concern that the military’s recent crackdown on monks and civilian demonstrators may make children even more vulnerable to recruitment.
Kilde: http://hrw.org
