Slorc forcing children into army

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September 20, 1997
BANGKOK POST
FEATURE / INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN'S DAY 
Slorc forcing children into army
Burmese children are getting more of an education than they bargained for. 
After a few years of schooling, they are being forced into the army, according 
to a report published today.
NUSSARA SAWATSAWANG
Burmese children are forced to join the army after being granted free 
education at state-sponsored schools, according to a report published today on 
the occasion of the International Children's Day widely observed in Europe.
In "No Childhood at All", a 70-page report published by Images Asia, the 
non-profit organisation promoting human rights in Burma and Southeast Asia 
cites interviews with defectors and gives a detailed account of the unique 
military style school called Ye Nyunt Youth, meaning Brave Young Leaves.
The report states Burmese boys could be "officially conscripted" into the 
military at the age of 14 under the programme. They are said to receive 
political training and are eventually assigned to serve in the army, in 
intelligence units or as security for high-ranking officers.
Burmese Ambassador to Thailand Hla Maung confirmed the existence of a special 
high school by that name located some 200 kilometres northeast of Rangoon. 
The ambassador told Bangkok Post the school was set up four years ago to 
provide rural children and orphans with a free education so they grow up with 
"good ambitions".
The school provides sports and vocational training but the children "stay 
under military discipline", said the ambassador. They can "do whatever they 
like", including joining the army or going to university, after graduation.
The Images Asia report indicated the school has branches in a number of places 
around Burma. It also focussed on the middle school level for younger 
teenagers.
Khaplang, a former ethnic Naga student who joined the Ye Nyunt middle school 
in the northern Chin state, was quoted as saying most of the 180 students 
there were sent for army training after completing the 8th standard.
"When the officers recruit the students from the village, they say the 
students can choose whatever they want to do in the future, but in fact the 
school decides the students' future," he said in an interview in June.
"I wanted to be an officer. He [the commander] told me 'you can't choose for 
yourself, we'll decide for you'," he said.
Khaplang, who escaped after passing the 6th standard, said pupils who fail the 
exams to attend the local high school are transferred to the army. He also 
heard that those who argued a lot with officers face the same fate.
At school pupils wear military uniforms two days a week and spend Saturdays 
practising parade drills along with regular studies, he said.
The exact number of child soldiers in Burma is unknown, but the report said 
the rapid expansion of the armed forces from 170,000 in 1988, when the ruling 
State Law and Order Restoration Council (Slorc) seized power, to 350,000 
today, and the plan to reach 475,000 by the year 2000, has both forced and 
encouraged the recruitment of minors.
Vitit Muntarbhorn, a specialist in child law attached to Chulalongkorn 
University, said children involved in armed conflicts stood to be damaged 
physically and psychologically.
They could be traumatised, become immoral and go mad as well as becoming drug 
addicts while in military service, he said.
The Burmese government acceded to the United Nations Convention on the Rights 
of the Child in 1991 and promulgated the Child Law two years later. The UN 
committee on the rights of the child, however, has expressed concern over 
Slorc's failure to take appropriate follow-up measures and to evaluate and 
monitor the situation, the report said.
The convention prohibits the use of soldiers below the age of 15. Member 
states are expected to give priority to the eldest for youths aged 15 to 18 
years.
Prof Vitit is for establishing 18 as the minimum age for recruitment of young 
people into any hostilities, an argument which is still under international 
consultation.
In Burma's case, he suggested that the Thai government use its influence on 
both Slorc and ethnic groups still opposed to the regime to demobilise child 
troops and to provide necessary rehabilitation.
A truth commission should also be set up to reveal casualties, he said.
The Images Asia report urged the Burmese authorities to insert into its Child 
Law specific articles preventing the recruitment of child soldiers, or to 
register child soldiers now in the armed forces with proof of age.