A UN report entitled “Children and Armed Conflict” that will be officially released later this month concludes that Burma's military is still using child soldiers in its campaign against the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), the armed wing of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO).
The UN report confirms widespread accounts from the frontlines of the Kachin conflict that Burma’s army—also known as the Tatmadaw—has not changed its ways and is still recruiting child soldiers, a violation of international law. According to the UN report, “children used by the Tatmadaw continued to be deployed to the frontline as combatants and in other roles, in particular in Kachin State.”
The report was released in advance to the UN Security Council on May 14 and was cited by reporter Matthew Russell Lee in his article in the Inner City Press . Mr. Lee, who is based in New York, focuses on the UN and is often the only reporter to raise questions about the Kachin conflict and other Burma- related issues at the UN's regular press briefings.
A similar report published last year by the UN Security Council’s “Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict” documented multiple cases of the Tatmadaw using children on the frontline. Last year’s report said the UN's “country task force” in Burma received detailed information about the army’s use of child soldiers in the Kachin conflict, including nine children who were captured by the KIA.
Regarding the nine captured children, last year’s report said: “the ILO facilitated the release of the underage recruits and is liaising with the Tatmadaw for the official discharge of those released. While one child reportedly ran away prior to release, the remaining eight were released on 14 January 2013. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), in collaboration with the Department of Social Welfare and local partners, facilitated the provision of temporary shelter and reintegration support for each case.”
