Children still playing war game: "A research on the trends and development of recruitment practices and usage of child soldiers in Burma"

College

College of Liberal Arts

Document Type

Archival Material/Manuscript

Abstract

The recent directives of the military junta to conduct forced recruitment of more soldiers for the Burmese Army will to a greater degree lead to the high density vulnerability of children to be forcibly recruited as child soldiers. And this hypothesis that has been tested to be true to a considerable degree by the 50 interviews with former child soldiers done by the Human Rights Education Institute of Burma (HREIB) and Yoma (3) New Service within 2004-2005. Based on the findings of the research, children agreed to join the military due to coercion and deception. And these acts are being reinforced by underlying economic, political cultural, and social factors that pressure children to become child soldiers. Most child soldiers in Burma were forcibly recruited. Force here does not only refer to physical violence or coercion but also refers to deception, lies and seduction. Some of these child soldiers expressed that the reason for joining the military is due to the perception that the armed force is the only alternative for children in families who cannot afford to care for them. Poverty and lack of alternative work/employment are critical factors leading to easy recruitment of children - some children joined the army because they were informed that they will receive salary as soldier. Indeed, most if not all, child soldiers came from families who are in impoverished conditions.
In terms of recruitment styles and patterns, the Burmese Army used various strategies. In most cases according to most of the interviewees of this report paper, recruitment teams are often in civilian clothing and carrying concealed weapons. Their favorite spots are railway and bus stations, toilets, ferry and boat docks, festivals, markets, busy places, and streets near schools. Usually the recruiters look for children who are around 11 or 12 years of age who don't know anything yet and who usually are not with their parents.
The junta also adopted the so-called "quota system". Local authorities are being given recruitment quotas and if they are not able to meet the quotas, they are being fined and if they did reach the quota they will be given incentive. This resulted in the latent recruitment of children to the army. The recruitment team in order for them to meet the quota usually used force and intimidation to convince lads to voluntarily enlist in the army. The most common method is to ask and see the lads' identity cards. When they cannot produce any they are faced with options of going to jail or join the military. This strategy singled-out children below 18 years of age first and foremost because these children does not know there in sno law specifying a jail term for failure to produce an identity card, and secondly, many children under 18 years have not yet obtained identity cards. Some of those child soldiers have been initially recruited as forced laborers and then being handed over the military to be child soldiers.
Nearly all of the children that have been interviewed went through military training and were sent out to the frontlines to fight the so-called "rebel groups". Most of the children were pushed to commit human rights abuses against civilians (ordinary people) and even against their own classmates during their military training. It is but evident in the interviews conducted that these children underwent some kind of military training though most of them felt that they don't want to go through these military activities because they thought and felt that they are not yet prepared for it emotionally, physically and mentally. New recruits are being kept, taken and detained at the local army post. police station or recruiting office where the recruiters are based. Each recruit has a filled-out registration form. In the form, the age of the child recruit is recorded to be 18 though he/she is only 12 or 13 years of age.
In as far as the conditions in detention cells is concerned most of the interviewees shared that it is horrible. In Burma, according to the information gathered by Human Rights Watch there are at least 22 basic military camps, as well as two or more training camps for non-commissioned officers, three officers training schools, and a number of specialized training schools. Many infantry and light infantry battalions also give refresher courses on landmines, and other secondary training.
Child recruits are usually detained in large barracks. Their training usually starts as early 6:00 o'clock in the morning with running and other physical training. As the training progresses, the use and maintenance of weapons dominates and eats up most the training time. Military parades, small arms, large weapons, military tactics, sent troops for battle are the concerns of the military training. In all military camps the children are treated harshly. Small mistakes committed by the recruits usually lead to beating. In addition to military training, most trainees spend at least two to three hours of their time working for the camp officers. This usually takes place late in the afternoons of Sundays and Saturdays. Recruits usually spend the same amount of time doing labor work for the camp officers as well as learning to be a soldier.
In most cases child soldiers suffer from mental, emotional and physical exhaustion. This is because of the fact that their bodies could not yet accommodated or not yet ready to the load of activities they have to undergo in order to fulfill what it requires to be in the military training. Almost every night, many child soldiers are crying in their barracks beds quietly because of frustration, sadness and the hardships they have to undergo in the training centers.
This dismal condition of child soldiers in training camps is being intensified by the reality that even the food being provided to them during training is extremely of low quality and nutrition. Another source of frustration and disappointment among the recruits is the fact that they don't have means and access to contact their families and love ones. The Burmese army does not provide any means of communication for these child soldiers to connect with their families. In a way, recruits are kept in the military barracks like prisoners.
When training is over, the interviewees shared that they have different and various functions and roles as child soldiers. Most of these roles pose threats to their lives and harmful to them and this is being intensified by the kind of environment they have which has higher proximity to violence and conflict compared to any other kind of surroundings. Most of them were used as front liners during military confrontation with the so-called rebel or insurgent groups. Some of them serves as spies and guards in checkpoints or messengers. Others served as porters, cooks, sentries and maids of the high ranking military officials. In performing these roles and functions, they are expected to have the same physical rigor and strengths as adult soldiers have which made their bodies vulnerable to different kinds of illnesses and made them physical exhausted. Whenever they could not perform their roles based on the expectations of their superiors, they will face severe consequences usually in the form of beatings.
On the one hand. some child soldiers are selected for special duty. Others are sent to ordinary units and being assigned to the hardest and dirtiest jobs. Moreover, a large number of child soldiers are sent to the directly involved in combat of which in most cases they usually do not know the reason why there are in the front-lines and who are they fighting for. Most of them are terrified and scared facing the so-called "enemies". However, because of their consistent exposure to this condition, they get easily adjusted to combat.
The most cruel among the roles or kind of activities that these child soldiers are being forced, encouraged or asked to do by their senior military officials is to commit human rights abuses against the civilian population. Child soldiers take part in the destruction of villages in areas suspected by the army to be supportive of the ethnic insurgent movements. They are also forced to participate in extra-judicial killings of civilians suspected to be "insurgent or rebels" and they suffers from trauma and emotional disturbance and they are trying to come to terms and cope up with these worst experience without any counseling or any forms of assistance from the military.
As one can observe, child soldiers are consistently exposed to different forms of human rights abuses against civilians and against their fellow child soldiers. Though this has been the case, still most of them are aware that something is not right in what they are doing. Inspite of dehumanization training given to them by the army, still they sense that what they are doing is wrong. Coping with this psychological battle some of them ran away from the army, some attempted suicide, and others just rationalize their experiences in order for them not to feel bad.
There is no doubt that the experience that child soldiers went through as members of the Burmese armed forces brought them stress and somewhat distorted their emotional, mental and psychological stance.
In retrospect, the regime in Burma is continuously violating the Convention on the Rights of the Child and related international standards and conventions concerning the use of child soldiers because of its continuous recruitment of children as soldiers in its armed forces and also of not fully demobilizing child combatants.

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Disciplines

Military and Veterans Studies

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