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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 RANGOON 000136 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP/MLS; PACOM FOR FPA 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/07/2017 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL KOCI BM
SUBJECT: BURMA SAYS, "NO MORE CHILD SOLDIERS...TRUST US" 
 
REF: 06 RANGOON 1361 
 
RANGOON 00000136  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
Classified By: Poloff Dean Tidwell for Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) 
 
¶1. (C) SUMMARY: The Burmese regime brought out its big guns 
on February 6 to persuade Rangoon-based diplomats that 
Burmese armed forces no longer recruit child soldiers.  SPDC 
Secretary-1 Lt. Gen. Thein Sein and Foreign Minister Nyan Win 
 
SIPDIS 
both told diplomats that the regime has taken all necessary 
steps to ensure that no underage soldiers have been recruited 
into its armed forces.  Staged visits to a military 
recruitment center and a basic training facility added little 
insight to the government's scripted rhetoric.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2. (U) The SPDC organized briefings on February 6 to convince 
foreign diplomats about efforts to eliminate recruitment of 
underage soldiers.  Lt. Gen. Thein Sein, Secretary-1 of the 
SPDC, Adjutant General of the Armed Forces, and Chairman of 
the Committee for the Prevention of Military Recruitment of 
Underage Children (CPMRUC), addressed the diplomats first. 
He outlined the activities of the CPMRUC since the SPDC 
established it on January 5, 2004, including the adoption of 
a Plan of Action.  Besides setting up procedures to ensure 
that youths less than 18 years of age do not enter the 
military, the Plan of Action includes measures for 
discharging unqualified soldiers and reintegrating them into 
civilian society. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Thein Sein also claimed that the CPMRUC consults and 
cooperates with UNICEF, UNDP, and the ICRC on child soldier 
issues and said it will soon convene a technical working 
group.  UNICEF, UNDP, and ICRC participated in a 
military-organized visit to a recruitment center in Mandalay 
in October 2006.  UNICEF told us they hope the announced 
technical working group will be a mechanism that enables 
UNICEF to work with the government on specific child soldier 
issues.  They have been repeatedly rebuffed when they raised 
the issue in the past and asked to visit military bases. 
 
¶4. (U) Thein Sein said the CPMRUC set up an inter-ministerial 
taskforce to supervise the implementation of the Plan of 
Action.  The ministries included in the task force are 
Foreign Affairs, Home Affairs, Labor, Social Welfare, and 
Relief and Resettlement.  Thein Sein stressed that Burma's 
armed forces are all volunteers who have joined of their own 
free will.  Subsequent briefings by a recruitment 
spokesperson and the vice-chief of military training claimed 
that in the recruitment process the candidates are asked more 
than once whether they joined of their own free will and, if 
not, they are released. 
 
¶5. (U) Foreign Minister Nyan Win also spoke to the diplomats. 
 He stressed that the CPMRUC wants to work more closely with 
UNICEF on recruitment issues.  In August 2006, UNICEF met 
with Thein Sein (reftel) and offered to help repatriate 
discharged soldiers determined to be underage and also to 
train Burmese military recruiters on international 
humanitarian law, as well as on Burma's own laws against the 
recruitment of child soldiers and HIV/AIDS awareness.  To 
date the regime has not responded to UNICEF's offer. 
 
¶6. (C) The briefers admitted that recruits who may be 
underage sometimes present themselves for military service 
and lack birth certificates.  Therefore, the military 
requires them to present testimonials from their parents or 
guardians, stating that they are 18 years old, and requires a 
second testimonial from their village or ward leader.  As a 
further measure to prevent recruitment of underage soldiers, 
a new recruit must not be shorter than 5 feet 2 inches, must 
have an expanded chest measurement of not less than 33 
inches, and must weigh not less than 105 pounds.  Statistics 
presented during the briefing claimed that the Burmese armed 
forces discharged 567 persons during a three-year period from 
 
RANGOON 00000136  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
2004-2006.  Over half (268) did not meet all the enlistment 
requirements, 177 failed their medical examination, and 122 
were discharged for being too young. 
 
¶7. (C) The regime also took diplomats to visit Military 
Recruitment Center No. 1 at Danyingone, on the outskirts of 
Rangoon.  The visit was clearly orchestrated, with new 
recruits all seated neatly on raised sleeping platforms in 
their barracks and an array of newspapers and magazines 
placed in front of each recruit for his reading pleasure. 
None of the recruits we saw could be described as children. 
They were dressed in civilian clothes, although one wore an 
imitation military jacket that said "U.S. Army" on the front. 
 A recruit due to be discharged for medical reasons was 
waiting with his parents to meet the diplomats in a staged 
discharge ceremony. 
 
¶8. (C) Numerous military equipment identification posters 
hung in the barracks and the dining room profiling U.S. 
military equipment including B-1, B-2, and B-52 bombers, a 
Blackhawk helicopter showing all of its weapons systems, an 
M-48 battle tank, and an M-113 APC.  We did not see any 
identification charts for Chinese or Indian weapons systems 
on display. 
 
¶9. (C) The final stop in the tour was the Burmese Army's 
Basic Training Depot No. 1 at Phaunggyi, Hlegu Township, 
Rangoon Division.  We observed 900 trainees in formation on 
the parade ground.  Our buses drove us around the training 
facility while we observed another 400-500 trainees engaged 
in target practice, physical training, and running obstacle 
courses in full battle gear.  The chief of the training 
facility said they provide 18 weeks of basic training for 
recruits from all three armed forces and normally train about 
3,000 new recruits per year.  He said they have trained as 
many as 5,000 in one year. 
 
¶10. (C) COMMENT: Although the regime produced written 
directives designed to end forced conscription of underage 
soldiers, all of the documents we saw dated from the 1970s. 
This Embassy has regularly reported that thousands of 
underage soldiers were recruited in subsequent years. 
Reliable sources have told us about many cases of forced 
conscription of underage soldiers by army recruiters as 
recent as 2006.  Even though senior military leaders may not 
condone the recruitment of child soldiers, desperate 
recruiters who have to meet quotas have no qualms.  The 
regime has invited UNICEF to visit its military recruitment 
centers in Rangoon and Mandalay, but until the regime allows 
UNICEF and others to make unannounced visits to any military 
base to verify for themselves, the regime's claims will 
remain unpersuasive.  END COMMENT. 
VILLAROSA