Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06RANGOON1361
2006-09-19 05:48:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Rangoon
Cable title:  

SPDC AND UNICEF DISCUSS CHILD SOLDIERS

Tags:  PGOV PHUM KOCI BM 
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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 RANGOON 001361 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR EAP/MLS; PACOM FOR FPA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/18/2016
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KOCI BM
SUBJECT: SPDC AND UNICEF DISCUSS CHILD SOLDIERS

REF: RANGOON 1136

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Classified By: PolOff Dean Tidwell for Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 RANGOON 001361

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR EAP/MLS; PACOM FOR FPA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/18/2016
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KOCI BM
SUBJECT: SPDC AND UNICEF DISCUSS CHILD SOLDIERS

REF: RANGOON 1136

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Classified By: PolOff Dean Tidwell for Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (C) SUMMARY: SPDC Secretary-1 Lt. Gen. Thein Sein recently
told UNICEF that Burma is making progress on reducing child
soldiers in its military, although UNICEF admits it has no
mechanism to verify these claims. The regime continues to
refuse UNICEF's request for regular, unannounced visits to
military induction centers. UNICEF has offered to help
rehabilitate discharged underage soldiers and to conduct
workshops for military recruiters. UNICEF has asked the
military to identify a technical liaison but is still waiting
for a response from the GOB. UNICEF and ILO both doubt NGO
claims there are 70,000 underage soldiers in the Burmese
army. UNICEF believes that some ethnic armies still recruit
child soldiers, particularly the Wa, although it believes the
Karen are sincere in recent efforts to try to ban use of
child soldiers. END SUMMARY.


2. (C) Ramesh Shrestha, UNICEF Burma Representative, and
Anne-Claire Dufay, UNICEF Burma's Child Protection Chief,
briefed PolOff on their August 30 meeting in Nay Pyi Taw with
SPDC Secretary-1, Lt. Gen. Thein Sein. Thein Sein, who
chairs the SPDC's Committee for Prevention Against
Recruitment of Minors for Military Service, raised the
subject of child soldiers and claimed that SPDC efforts to
prevent recruitment of child soldiers by the Burmese army are
effective. According to UNICEF, the SPDC seems aware of
international attention on child soldiers and is taking the
problem more seriously. According to Shrestha, the SPDC
finds it particularly galling to be ranked on a par with
Sudan and other African countries notorious for recruiting
underage soldiers. While UNICEF acknowledges the SPDC wishes
"if not to eliminate, at least to minimize" its recruitment
of underage soldiers, UNICEF admitted it has no independent
means to verify SPDC claims. The military continues to
refuse UNICEF's request to make regular, unannounced visits
to military induction centers.


3. (C) Thein Sein claimed that the SPDC is following its 2004

Plan of Action to eliminate the recruitment of child soldiers
and had briefed all recruitment centers on proper recruitment
protocols. The latest report from the Ministry of Defense to
UNICEF claims that in the period from February to May 2006,
the Burmese army discharged 55 new recruits, of whom four
were deemed to be underage and 12 others who were released in
response to appeals by their families. The rest were
declared unfit for military service due to unspecified
reasons.


4. (C) UNICEF has requested that the SPDC identify a
technical point-of-contact with whom UN agencies could work
on child soldier issues. UNICEF also offered to assist to
rehabilitate and reintegrate child soldiers released by the
military and to conduct awareness workshops for the
military's recruitment personnel. The GOB has yet to respond.


5. (C) UNICEF believes that recent NGO claims that the
Burmese army has as many as 70,000 child soldiers are grossly
exaggerated. They note that this figure would represent
almost 20 percent of Burmese armed forces, making it
impossible to keep so many child soldiers out of public view.
UNICEF claimed that a human rights organization extrapolated
this figure based on a very small sample. Absent free access
to military camps and recruitment centers, UNICEF admitted
that it is difficult to accurately estimate the number of
child soldiers.


6. (C) On August 30, ILO Liaison Officer Richard Horsey told
EconOff he received credible information that child

RANGOON 00001361 002.2 OF 002


recruitment continues, especially in response to official
pressure to meet the regime's target of a total military
force of 400,000 soldiers. He noted that children are easy
to trick and that recruiters focus on street children,
children in transit, children from poor families, and those
without identity cards. He said that if families claim their
children before the army sends them to induction and
training, authorities release them.

CHILDREN IN ETHNIC ARMIES


7. (C) UNICEF confirmed there are also child soldiers among
Burma's ethnic armies, particularly in the Wa region, where
UNICEF field workers reported seeing significant numbers of
soldiers in the United Wa State Army (UWSA) who clearly were
underage. Wa officials freely admitted to Charg that at age
16 males must join the UWSA (reftel). UNICEF and UNHCR in
Thailand have held talks on child soldiers with the Karen
National Union (KNU) and the Shan State Army - South. Both
groups responded to the UN in writing, claiming that they do
not and would not recruit child soldiers. The KNU's letter
stated the KNU was committed to not accepting underage
volunteers in its army, and said it was illegal under Karen
law. The KNU vowed to take action against anyone who
recruited child soldiers. Dufay said the KNU is eager to be
removed from the UNSYG's list of armed groups that recruit
child soldiers.


8. (C) COMMENT: Absent any means of independent verification,
both the regime's and armed ethnic groups' denials that they
recruit any child soldiers are impossible to access.
International attention to the issues has forced the regime
and the KNU to address the issue, and senior leaders of the
SPDC and the KNU are condemning the practice publicly.
However, with growing poverty and ongoing pressure on
recruiters to fill ranks, the Burmese military and some armed
insurgent groups will find it hard to resist recruiting child
soldiers until the strategic costs truly outweigh the
tactical benefits. END COMMENT.
VILLAROSA