Amnesty International has interviewed former child
soldiers who managed to make their way to Thailand.
These young men, mostly aged 18 or 19 at the time of
their interviews, were abducted from their villages in
southern Myanmar and forcibly conscripted into the
Myanmar army before turning 18. Some were as young as 15 at the time of their conscription. After being taken into army camps, they were beaten and kicked when they displeased their military superiors. One boy is known to have been murdered by having his throat cut and then shot in the head after refusing to obey an order. In combat operations in the Kayin (Karen) State, child soldiers were forced to precede the adult soldiers into combat apparently in order to draw enemy fire away from the other soldiers and to become human mine detectors.
The practice of enlistment of children, both voluntary and forced, into the Myanmar army is widespread throughout the country. They are often employed in military operations in areas where mostly ethnic-based insurgent groups have taken up arms against the junta.
We join Amnesty International in opposing the enlistment of children into military service. We urge the State Peace and Development Council, the chief governing body of Myanmar, to ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child which prohibits the recruitment and deployment in hostilities of any person younger than 18 years and to immediately discharge those who entered into military service while 17 years old or younger.
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Please help us in our campaign to end the junta's use of child soldiers. After reading the petition, simply fill in the information requested directly below the petition and then click the Submit button.
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