Child Soldiers in Burma

In the news recently, we have seen the Burmese people's fight for independence and the brutal reaction by the opposition - the government. But there is more. Today the Human Rights Watch organization released a report indicating that the Burmese government is one of the biggest "recruiters" of child soldiers. According to the report, the Burmese military target children unrelentingly due to the need to fill their ranks because of high desertion rates, lack of willing volunteers, and army expansion. There is a cash payment either to the military recruiter or civilian broker for each member recruited, regardless of the fact that it is a child they recruit.

To read the article and access the report, click here for the Human Rights Watch website article. The fight for democracy in Burma not only means the freedom of its people, its monks, but also the freedom of its children from continued forced recruitment. Follow the news in Burma through the following sites:

Democratic Voice of Burma: News Page
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's Pages
BBC News Asia-Pacific Page

Sri Lanka: Child Abduction & Child Soldiers

According to a Human Rights Watch article last week, children continue to be abducted in Sri Lanka by the pro-government Karuna group. Not only that but the recruitment of children is also conducted by another group called the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) who turn the children into armed soldiers. As much as 200 cases of abduction have been reported by UNICEF but these numbers are the minimum; the actual numbers could easily be more because parents are afraid to report their missing children. About a dozen children were released by the Karuna group in December, according to the article, but UNICEF reported that at least three of these children were re-recruited.

The children are being abducted from camps for the internally displaced as well as in broad daylight in the city. The abducted children are being trained to carry arms, to fight, to be soldiers. Children are being used in the frontlines, even girls. The government is doing little to acknowledge this as a human rights violation and has not taken any effective action to put a stop to these abductions. Government patrols do nothing even when they pass by children with arms guarding various Karuna offices.

This is a serious violation of children's rights. See the Human Rights Watch website for more details and other related articles.

Northern Uganda

For 21 years now atrocities rage on in Northern Uganda. Did you know about it? A whole culture, a whole people - the Acholi - are close to being wiped out, and not just by the LRA or the government army either. Death tolls are staggering in the camps that are supposed to be "refugee camps" to protect those Acholi that are "escaping" the atrocities committed by the LRA. Children are being kidnapped to be child soldiers, brutally traumatized by what they see. But children are also being traumatized by the lack of adequate health care and other basic needs in these camps. Suicide is taboo in the Acholi culture, but in the camps, conditions are so dire that many are contemplating it while others have carried through with it. Where is the international community in all of this? Where is the call to hold the Ugandan government accountable for the protection of their people?

Peace talks are resuming and while people are returning to their villages in northern Uganda, it is still a long way from over. There are still estimated to be about 1.2 million people in the camps and the conditions continue to be terrible. And peace is tentative for the time being. The peace needs to be sustainable and permanent.

So write to your representatives, your senators regarding these issues. There are samples of letters on the Human Rights Watch site and Amnesty International. And sign the "No Child Soldiers" Declaration on World Vision's website at:

https://www.worldvision.org/Worldvision/guest.nsf/nochild_soldiers?OpenForm&campaign=1256080&cmp=KNC-1256080