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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 RANGOON 001361 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP/MLS; PACOM FOR FPA 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/18/2016 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KOCI BM
SUBJECT: SPDC AND UNICEF DISCUSS CHILD SOLDIERS 
 
REF: RANGOON 1136 
 
RANGOON 00001361  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
Classified By: PolOff Dean Tidwell for Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) 
 
¶1. (C) SUMMARY: SPDC Secretary-1 Lt. Gen. Thein Sein recently 
told UNICEF that Burma is making progress on reducing child 
soldiers in its military, although UNICEF admits it has no 
mechanism to verify these claims.  The regime continues to 
refuse UNICEF's request for regular, unannounced visits to 
military induction centers.  UNICEF has offered to help 
rehabilitate discharged underage soldiers and to conduct 
workshops for military recruiters.  UNICEF has asked the 
military to identify a technical liaison but is still waiting 
for a response from the GOB.  UNICEF and ILO both doubt NGO 
claims there are 70,000 underage soldiers in the Burmese 
army.  UNICEF believes that some ethnic armies still recruit 
child soldiers, particularly the Wa, although it believes the 
Karen are sincere in recent efforts to try to ban use of 
child soldiers.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2. (C) Ramesh Shrestha, UNICEF Burma Representative, and 
Anne-Claire Dufay, UNICEF Burma's Child Protection Chief, 
briefed PolOff on their August 30 meeting in Nay Pyi Taw with 
SPDC Secretary-1, Lt. Gen. Thein Sein.  Thein Sein, who 
chairs the SPDC's Committee for Prevention Against 
Recruitment of Minors for Military Service, raised the 
subject of child soldiers and claimed that SPDC efforts to 
prevent recruitment of child soldiers by the Burmese army are 
effective.  According to UNICEF, the SPDC seems aware of 
international attention on child soldiers and is taking the 
problem more seriously.  According to Shrestha, the SPDC 
finds it particularly galling to be ranked on a par with 
Sudan and other African countries notorious for recruiting 
underage soldiers.  While UNICEF acknowledges the SPDC wishes 
"if not to eliminate, at least to minimize" its recruitment 
of underage soldiers, UNICEF admitted it has no independent 
means to verify SPDC claims.  The military continues to 
refuse UNICEF's request to make regular, unannounced visits 
to military induction centers. 
 
¶3. (C) Thein Sein claimed that the SPDC is following its 2004 
Plan of Action to eliminate the recruitment of child soldiers 
and had briefed all recruitment centers on proper recruitment 
protocols.  The latest report from the Ministry of Defense to 
UNICEF claims that in the period from February to May 2006, 
the Burmese army discharged 55 new recruits, of whom four 
were deemed to be underage and 12 others who were released in 
response to appeals by their families.  The rest were 
declared unfit for military service due to unspecified 
reasons. 
 
¶4. (C) UNICEF has requested that the SPDC identify a 
technical point-of-contact with whom UN agencies could work 
on child soldier issues.  UNICEF also offered to assist to 
rehabilitate and reintegrate child soldiers released by the 
military and to conduct awareness workshops for the 
military's recruitment personnel.  The GOB has yet to respond. 
 
¶5. (C) UNICEF believes that recent NGO claims that the 
Burmese army has as many as 70,000 child soldiers are grossly 
exaggerated.  They note that this figure would represent 
almost 20 percent of Burmese armed forces, making it 
impossible to keep so many child soldiers out of public view. 
 UNICEF claimed that a human rights organization extrapolated 
this figure based on a very small sample.  Absent free access 
to military camps and recruitment centers, UNICEF admitted 
that it is difficult to accurately estimate the number of 
child soldiers. 
 
¶6. (C) On August 30, ILO Liaison Officer Richard Horsey told 
EconOff he received credible information that child 
 
RANGOON 00001361  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
recruitment continues, especially in response to official 
pressure to meet the regime's target of a total military 
force of 400,000 soldiers.  He noted that children are easy 
to trick and that recruiters focus on street children, 
children in transit, children from poor families, and those 
without identity cards.  He said that if families claim their 
children before the army sends them to induction and 
training, authorities release them. 
 
CHILDREN IN ETHNIC ARMIES 
 
¶7. (C) UNICEF confirmed there are also child soldiers among 
Burma's ethnic armies, particularly in the Wa region, where 
UNICEF field workers reported seeing significant numbers of 
soldiers in the United Wa State Army (UWSA) who clearly were 
underage.  Wa officials freely admitted to Charg that at age 
16 males must join the UWSA (reftel).  UNICEF and UNHCR in 
Thailand have held talks on child soldiers with the Karen 
National Union (KNU) and the Shan State Army - South.  Both 
groups responded to the UN in writing, claiming that they do 
not and would not recruit child soldiers.  The KNU's letter 
stated the KNU was committed to not accepting underage 
volunteers in its army, and said it was illegal under Karen 
law.  The KNU vowed to take action against anyone who 
recruited child soldiers.  Dufay said the KNU is eager to be 
removed from the UNSYG's list of armed groups that recruit 
child soldiers. 
 
¶8. (C) COMMENT: Absent any means of independent verification, 
both the regime's and armed ethnic groups' denials that they 
recruit any child soldiers are impossible to access. 
International attention to the issues has forced the regime 
and the KNU to address the issue, and senior leaders of the 
SPDC and the KNU are condemning the practice publicly. 
However, with growing poverty and ongoing pressure on 
recruiters to fill ranks, the Burmese military and some armed 
insurgent groups will find it hard to resist recruiting child 
soldiers until the strategic costs truly outweigh the 
tactical benefits.  END COMMENT. 
VILLAROSA