Burmese Officers Train with UN on Child Soldiers Prevention

Burmese army officers are participating in a UN-backed five-day training course this week on preventing the recruitment of child soldiers.

According to the state-run newspaper The New Light of Myanmar, the course was inaugurated in Rangoon on Monday by the junta’s Work Committee for Prevention of Recruiting Minors for Military Service, headed by Maj-Gen Ngwe Thein, and the UN agency UNICEF. Thirty three Burmese officers are participating.

The New Light of Myanmar reported that the opening ceremony was attended by officials from UNICEF, the office of the UN High Commissioner on Refugees and international organizations such as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Save the Children and World Vision.

However, another international body that concerns itself with the issue of child soldiers, the International Labour Organization was not present on the list of those attending.

The training program was initiated after a UN Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict called in October for the establishment of courses, comprehensive education and awareness-raising activities for military personnel on international and national laws relating to the prevention of recruitment of children.

An estimated 70,000 child soldiers are reported to be serving in the Burmese army and with armed cease-fire groups. Some are said to be as young as 11.

“Burma continues widespread and systematic forced recruitment of child soldiers,” said the New York-based Human Rights Watch in its World Report 2009. “Non-state armed groups also recruit and deploy children areas.”

Burmese representatives at the UN insist that the government restricts admission to the armed forces to recruits aged over 18, under the Myanmar (Burma) Defense Service Act and the War Office Council Directive.

The current training program is the third to be held this year. The ICRC has described them as “train-the-trainer” courses and said it organized them jointly with the Burmese government's Department of Social Welfare.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the UN Security Council in March that although the Burmese government had announced that nine military recruitment officers had been discharged for violating the national military recruitment law, no legal action had been taken against the perpetrators.

Human Rights Watch has said the UN Security Council had failed to act effectively against the recruitment of child soldiers in Burma.

“The Security Council’s failure—in large part due to efforts by China to block a more principled response—was particularly glaring given its previous pledges to seriously consider arms embargoes and other targeted measure against parties that repeatedly recruit and use child soldiers,” Human Rights Watch said.