Youths under the age of 18, from Moulmein Township in Mon State, are being forcibly enlisted into the Burmese Army, according to soldiers from the South East Command (SEC).

IMNA learned from an informant in the SEC that the children in question are as young as 14 years old, and are from the Pegu and Irrawaddy divisions as well as Arakan State.

“The South East Command hired brokers to find children, and brokers spend 2000,00 kyat for 1 child. The children’s parents are poor and they can’t support their children to go to school, therefore they exchanged their children for money. Parents think that their children will become soldiers and they don’t know how badly their children will fare as soldiers, “said a soldier from the South East command.

Since January of this year, the SEC has asked its brokers to procure two children a month, added the soldier.

According to residents from Moulmein Township, SEC also kidnapped ten children while they were walking on the road in the Moulmein township area.

The Human Right Education Institution of Burma (HREIB) and ethnic minority groups have welcomed UN investigations into the use of child soldiers in Burma. Various exile media groups reported on the UN’s announcement on this past August 4th that it was sending a team to Burma, in order to pressure ethnic minority armed groups and the Burmese army into stopping thier use of child soldiers.

On July 22, Yoma news group released a report called “Child Soldiers Burma's Sons of Sorrow”, which highlighted how the Burmese Army is recruiting under-aged children to supplement the dwindling numbers of the Burmese Army. The Burmese government announced in 2008 that it need to increase its army’s numbers to a total of 500, 000 troops.

A Yoma news report estimated that between 20 and 30 soldiers run away from the 500 Burmese Battalion in the 14th commander division every month.