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UN accuses Burma of Child military



Subject: UN accuses Burma of Child military conscription.


	U.N. accuses Burma of child military conscription
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                     January 17, 1997
                     Web posted at: 1:30 p.m. EST (1830 GMT) 

                     GENEVA (Reuter) - The United Nations
                     Committee on the Rights of the Child urged
                     Burma on Friday to end what it called
                     systematic, forced enrollment of children in
                     the country's army. 

                     The committee called for "urgent efforts to
                     end child military conscription and forced use of 
		     children as porters
                     for the army." 

                     A U.N. statement said Burmese officials taking part 
		     in a debate in
                     Geneva had denied the accusations and insisted they 
		     had been
                     fabricated by government opponents. 

                     On Wednesday, the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch Asia 
		     said in
                     a report that Burma's children were forced to join 
		     the army, used
                     as porters for troops, beaten, arrested, sexually 
		     abused and
                     transferred illegally to Thailand. 

                     The human rights group alleged that "hundreds, if 
		     not thousands" of
                     children had died from beatings, exhaustion and lack 
	             of care in
                     recent years because of the military regime's use of 
		     forced labor. 

		     [CNN News, 17 January 1997].

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