2010 June 8 Statement on Conclusion of Special Sitting on Conv 29 Fcd Lbr _Bur_-1
Showing posts with label CHILD SOLDIER. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CHILD SOLDIER. Show all posts
(၉၉)ႀကိမ္ေျမာက္ILOညီလာခံ စံနႈန္းစံထားေကာ္မတီ၊ အထူးႀကားနာခ်က္မွ ခ်မွတ္ေသာဆုံျဖတ္ခ်က္အေပၚ ျမန္မာနိုင္ငံအလုပ္သမားသမဂၢမ်ားအဖဲြ ့ခ်ဳပ္၏ ထုတ္ျပန္ေႀကာျငာခ်က္
The Burmese junta increases forced labour and child soldiers
ILO Report: The Burmese junta increases forced labour and child soldiers
50% increase in complaints of forced labour and more than half involving children and young people enrolled in the army. The military junta has inserted a provision in the Constitution that authorizes the use of civilians in the construction of roads, infrastructure, such as porters or minesweepers.
Yangon (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The alleged cases of forced labour in Myanmar increased by 50% over the past five months, over half concerns the recruitment of children and young people among the ranks of the army. This is shown by a recent report by the International Labour Organization (ILO), which admits the "ineffectiveness" of pressure to the Burmese government.
Last June, the ILO criticized a provision of the Constitution of Myanmar – which the junta drafted and ratified in a farce referendum in 2008 - that justifies the exploitation of forced labour as punishment for crimes or "in case of assignments entrusted by the Union [Myanmar], in accordance with law and in the public interest.”
As of 28 October, allegations of forced labour made to the ILO offices are 223. These are supplemented by the recruitment of 112 children in the army over the past seven months. Aye Myint, an activist for the rights of workers in Pegu, Bago division, told the dissident newspaper The Irrawaddy that the young people were recruited between May and November "and families have submitted complaints.
Defence of human rights groups confirm that the Burmese military junta continues a campaign of forced recruitment of minors into the army. Children are picked up from school, bars, cinemas or in the evening as they return home. They are threatened and beaten if they resist. Completed training, they are sent to war zones to fight against ethnic rebels.
The ILO document explains that, following complaints from families, “59 child soldiers were demobilized, 30 cases are currently pending and awaiting the start of the nine others". Forced labour in Myanmar takes on many forms: construction of roads and infrastructure, use of civilians as porters for the army or minesweepers.
The government has signed an agreement with the International Labour Organization "not to punish" those who report cases of forced labour. In many cases happens, however, that local officials (civilian and military) retaliate, through harassment or violence against those who dare to rebel.
The Karen Human Rights Group (Khrg) is launching a new appeal for "a real step forward in defending the rights of children affected by war." The problem of child soldiers has dragged on for years in Myanmar: a report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) in 2002 estimated that at least 70 thousand members of the Burmese army are under the age of 18.
http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=16903&size=A
Burmese Army Still Recruiting Under-age Soldiers
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=16176
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By LAWI WENG Wednesday, June 24, 2009
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The Burmese army is still recruiting under-age soldiers in contravention of a United Nations call to stop the practice, according to child labor activists in Burma.
In the latest incident, a 16-year-old youth was taken late at night by an army truck from Light Infantry Division 77, based in Pegu.
Aye Myint, a leading labor activist in Pegu Division, said the youth was taken from a local restaurant where he worked. His parents were told by an officer at the Pegu army base that the youth had been sent to a recruitment center in Rangoon’s Mingalardon Township.
Aye Myint said the youth’s family has lodged a letter of complaint with the International Labour Organization (ILO) office in Rangoon on June 17. The Irrawaddy tried
unsuccessfully to contact the office on Wednesday.
Kyin Toe, chairman of the National League for Democracy (NLD) in Twante Township, said another family had complained to his office that their under-age son had been recruited by the army.
Burma’s state-run media maintains that the government is screening recruits and releasing any found to be under age. It reported that 68 children were detected recently in various military training schools and were released to their parents or guardians.
The ILO says it has been instrumental, together with the International Committee of the Red Cross, in the release of 12 under-age recruits. A further 14 cases are still being processed.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch has said that 70,000 under-age soldiers are serving in the Burmese armed forces.
The UN also says in its latest report on the situation that the Burmese military junta is still recruiting child soldiers. The report on “Children and Armed Conflict” was released this month.
Human rights groups say children are recruited at train stations, bus depots, tea shops, outside video halls and movie cinemas or even while walking home at night.
The groups say the young recruits are threatened and beaten if they refuse to agree to undergo military training. After their training, many are sent to areas where the army is in conflict with ethnic groups.
Copyright © 2008 Irrawaddy Publishing Group | www.irrawaddy.org
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