U.N. urges Myanmar to stop using child soldiers

By Claudia Parsons

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Myanmar should release its child soldiers, stop recruiting youths under 18 in its army and allow U.N. officials access to remote areas where armed groups also use child soldiers, the United Nations said in a report released on Friday.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in the report that restrictions on access around the country made it difficult to give an accurate picture, but credible reports of the use of child soldiers showed a worrisome trend.

The report covers the period from July 2005 to September this year, just before a bloody crackdown by the country's military rulers on peaceful demonstrations that sparked international outcry.

Western diplomats say many more people were killed than the official toll of 15. The protests were the biggest threat to the junta since a 1988 rebellion.

The report issued to the Security Council said that despite an official policy of not recruiting children under the age of 18, there are extensive reports of children being recruited, sometimes through brokers who are paid around $30 and a bag of rice for each recruit.

"There is reportedly enormous pressure to accelerate (army) recruitment rates," Ban said, citing a pattern of underage recruitment in which poor, vulnerable children are offered food and shelter to lure them in.

Others without identification papers are offered a choice of arrest or joining the army.

Ban said Myanmar had pledged to punish those responsible and provided lists of children released from the army, but U.N. officials had been unable to verify that such action had been taken.

The report said children also were commonly recruited by rebel groups in Myanmar, some of which have signed cease-fires with the government. The former Burma is one of the most ethnically diverse countries in Southeast Asia, comprising 10 main ethnic groups and at least 135 subgroups.

Multiple insurgencies broke out soon after independence from Britain in 1948 when promises of autonomy failed to materialize. In the 1980s and 1990s the junta offered some autonomy to rebel groups in return for ending their armed struggle. Many agreed, but some are still fighting.

Ban said there were reports of children as young as 9 in the ranks of military training schools of the United Wa State Army, a group that ended its struggle for an ethnic Wa state in 1989 when it signed a deal with the junta.

The report called for steps including the release of all children in the armed forces and greater access to areas where there are reports of children being recruited. (Editing by Xavier Briand)


FROM:REUTERS