UN Report Accuses Regime, Armed Ethnic Groups of Recruiting Children

January 30, 2008

A United Nations report released on Tuesday accused the Burmese armed forces, the country’s Tatmadaw, and armed ethnic groups of recruiting children to serve as soldiers.

The groups named in the report are the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), Karen National Union-Karen National Liberation Army Peace Council; Kachin Independence Army (KIA); Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), Karenni Army (KA), Karenni National People’s Liberation Front (KNPLF), Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army and Shan State Army-South (SSA-S).

This is more than double the number of armed ethnic groups named in last year’s “Children and Armed Conflict” report, which listed only three—the KNLA, KA and United Wa State Army.
In the 45-page report, submitted to the UN Security Council and General Assembly, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon alleged that the Burmese armed forces have also been responsible for killing and maiming children and denying humanitarian access.
Besides Burma, the report said child soldiers were being recruited in recruitment in Afghanistan, Burundi, Chad, the Central African Republic, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nepal, the Philippines, Somalia, Sudan, Sri Lanka and Uganda.

The report recommended the use of a range of measures, including bans on military aid and travel restrictions, against parties to armed conflict who continued to systematically commit grave violations against children.
It also urged the Security Council to refer violations against children in armed conflict to the International Criminal Court.

The report said that, despite regime denials, reliable reports from UN partners indicate that attempts to recruit children forcibly for Tatmadaw service were still occurring. “It is difficult to systematically verify the extent of recruitment or the number of children in military camps owing to access limitations,” it added.
The report said the UN had not received any reports of new recruitment of children by the KNLA, KA or KNPP in the period under review.
However, the limitations imposed by the junta on UN access to areas of operations and on dialogue with the KNLA and KA hampered efforts to verify whether those groups had in fact stopped recruiting children.
Reports had been received indicating that a breakaway faction of the KNU, the KNU-KNLA Peace Council, had recruited children from the Mae La refugee camp and villages in the border areas.

“Sources suggest that several boys were deceived into crossing the border by promises of pay and participation in celebrations but were subsequently coerced into joining the armed group,” the report said. “While most of the children have returned, four boys are reportedly still missing. It is not known whether the KNU-KNLA Peace Council continues recruitment, and the UN has not been able to verify the reports of recruitment.”

Reports had been received of a “one child per family” recruitment policy by the KIA. In early 2007, the UN verified a report of a 15-year-old girl recruited by the KIA when she returned to her home village from school in Myitkyina, Kachin State. “To date, the girl remains with KIA,” the report said.

Eyewitness accounts had been received of children serving with the United Wa State Army in northern Shan State, despite the UWSA’s recent statement to the UN special representative that no children had been recruited since the ceasefire agreement reached by the group with the Burmese regime.
“There are reports of Shan State Army-South recruiting children as part of a new mandatory recruitment policy,” the report said. “Children are also recruited and used by Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (Kokang) in northern Shan State.”

Information had also been received that children were serving with the KNPLF and DKBA. “However, in-depth monitoring is hampered by access limitations to areas of operations of these groups,” the report said.

Meanwhile Maj-Gen Thura Myint Aung, who heads a panel charged with ending the practice of forcing minors into the army, told that from 2002 to 2007, officials had returned 792 children from the military to their parents.
The junta's mouthpiece New Light of Myanmar quoted him as saying the authorities had "taken action" against 43 military personnel, including some officers. The paper, however, gave no details on the punishments.

Aung San Su Kyi and Military Junta in Burma

Aung Kyi insisted Suu Kyi to endorse the regime`s " Seven step roadmap during the meetings
In the reconciliation talks between Burma’s democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the junta’s liaison officer, Aung Kyi, most of the time is taken up on trivial subjects, according to sources in the National League of Democracy.

Senior members of the NLD who asked for anonymity told on Thursday that sometimes an hour- long meeting is filled up with explanations and questions, such as “What is cooperation?” and “What is collaboration?” by the junta liaison officer, Suu Kyi told a group of NLD members whom she met with on Wednesday just prior to her fifth meeting with Aung Kyi.
Suu Kyi said she has spoken to Aung Kyi about important issues, and he replies that he will report her remarks to top officials and then a month goes by with no discussions, NLD sources said.
Suu Kyi told her colleagues that Aung Kyi told her to endorse the regime’s “seven-step road map” to democracy because it’s the foundation of the junta’s plan for the country.

Instead, Suu Kyi suggested an inclusive reconciliation process that includes participation by ethnic group leaders in any talks about the country’s future.
“She [Suu Kyi] is not pleased with the talks,” said an NLD member. “She does not mean the process is hopeless, but it is being drawn out and prolonged.”
Suu Kyi’s request to meet with the head of the military junta, Snr-Gen Than Shwe, has received no response from the junta, and the talks are proceeding without a time frame.

Suu Kyi said she does not want to give false hope to the people of Burma, but in such conditions something positive could happen.
On Wednesday, she said she recalled her father Aung San’s famous remark before he held talks with the British government in London during the pre-independence period, “Let’s hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.”
A veteran journalist in Rangoon, Sein Hla Oo, commenting on the talks, said, “She [Suu Kyi] is not satisfied with the process. She thinks meaningful dialogue is very important for the country, but others think it is not important.”
Suu Kyi reportedly told her NLD colleagues to move forward without her, said the source. Sometimes she can lead the party; sometimes she will follow others’ leadership within the party, he said.

She suggested that sometimes the party needs to push and sometime it needs to pull, and if it is necessary, everyone needs to give up everything, he said.
He said she asked authorities to allow NLD deputy leader Tin Oo to participate in the meeting on Wednesday, but the authorities rejected the proposal.

ARAKANESE AND BURMESE REFUGEES

Here is the slides of Arakanese and Burmese refugees...

http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=DbfyB4Zm1No

ZMO

Burmese blogger Nay Phone Latt, mysteriously missing

February 1, 2008

The Burmese blogger, Nay Phone Latt, allegedly arrested by the police on Tuesday has mysteriously gone missing, family members complained.Daw Aye Aye Than, mother of blogger and writer, Nay Phone Latt, said, the whereabouts of her son cannot be confirmed as authorities including police officers in Thuwana and Thingan Kyun police stations and Ministry of Home Affairs deny detaining him.Daw Aye Aye Than said her son left home on Tuesday at about noon but when they tried to contact him on cell phone at about 1:00 p.m. he could not be contacted."And at around 2:30 p.m. the authorities came to our house but did not ask for Nay Phone Latt. They looked around the house. So I think he must have been arrested before they came to us," Daw Aye Aye Than told Mizzima.She added that the police team led by Maj. Hein Htet while not mentioning their purpose searched around the house, as if looking for someone in hiding.

"We went to the office of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Tingankyun and Thuwana police stations to inquire about him but all the authorities would tell us was they don't know him and he is not here," Daw Aye Aye Than said.Daw Aye Aye Than said she is worried for her son and could not understand the reason for his mysterious disappearance."I am very sad for this kind of unlawful action, I don't understand why they [authorities] are doing this to my son because he is not involved in any illegal activities and does all his work openly," Daw Aye Aye Than said.Nay Phone Latt, who has a blogsite www.nayphonelatt. blogspot. com, reportedly disappeared on Tuesday. While many of his colleagues believe he has been arrested by the police, there are, so far no eyewitness accounts.While earlier, some friends said he was taken away by the police from an internet café in Thingan Kyun township in Rangoon, his mother's version indicates that he was arrested while on the road.While either version cannot be independently verified, it is still uncertain that the authorities have taken him away, as there are no eyewitnesses.

SOURCED BY: MIZIIMA

UN envoy ends visit to India on Myanmar

NEW DELHI (AFP) - India said it was "worried" Myanmar was not moving fast enough on democratic reforms, although New Delhi remained opposed to imposing sanctions on the regime to speed up the process.

A senior foreign ministry official made the comment as United Nations envoy on Myanmar Ibrahim Gambari ended a three-day visit to New Delhi for talks with Indian leaders on its military-run neighbour."What worries us is that (Myanmar's) transition to democracy ... has not made rapid progress ... has not moved as fast as we would want," said the official who did not wish to be identified.The official said New Delhi would continue to "encourage" Myanmar to hold talks with pro-democracy groups "because we need a peaceful" neighbourhood.Gambari met with top Vice President Mohammed Hamid Ansari, Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon during his visit.Indian leaders have come in for heavy criticism over their muted reaction to the junta's violent crackdown on anti-government protests led by Buddhist monks last year.But Gambari said during a visit here in October that he was "encouraged" by Indian pledges to support efforts to resolve the Myanmar crisis.India's prime minister also emphasised the also met with his Myanmar counterpartIndia has cultivated close ties with Myanmar's military rulers in recent years, citing its huge energy requirements as well as its need to jointly battle separatist rebels who are active along the two countries' jungle border.

The country is also competing for influence with its main Asian rival, China.The official said Thursday New Delhi supported UN efforts for a return to democracy in Myanmar but opposed sanctions as "regimes like that know how to ride sanctions." "Many years of sanctions have not worked... we need to work together" to bring in democracy, he added.

Top US diplomat in Myanmar wants international pressure on junta for reforms

Top US diplomat in Myanmar wants international pressure on junta for reformsBy GRANT PECK,Associated Press Writer AP - Saturday, February 2BANGKOK, Thailand - Fresh international pressure is necessary to push Myanmar's military rulers toward reform because the momentum for change after last year's demonstrations has been lost, the top U.S. diplomat in the country said Friday.The appeal by Shari Villarosa, charge d'affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Yangon, followed signs that the ruling junta was again stepping up repression of dissidents.It also came after Myanmar's detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi said Wednesday she was dissatisfied with the progress of her reconciliation talks with the junta, and cautioned the public to "hope for the best and prepare for the worst."Myanmar's crisis attracted world attention when Buddhist monks last September began leading anti-government protests, the biggest in two decades. At least 30 people are believed to have been killed when the government suppressed the demonstrations, and thousands detained, though most have since been released.

Under pressure from U.N. special envoy Ibrahim Gambari, the junta appointed a "Minister for Relations" to talk with Suu Kyi, but their few meetings have borne no results, and junta leader Senior Gen. Than Shwe has made no further moves toward reconciliation."I think everybody hoped that there was genuine will on the part of Than Shwe and his senior generals to begin a real dialogue, and what is increasingly evident is that they have no intention whatsoever in engaging in a genuine dialogue," Villarosa said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press in Bangkok.Earlier this week, lawyers working with the pro-democracy movement said that about two dozen members of the 88 Generation Students group, whose small protests against a fuel price hike mushroomed into last September's massive demonstrations, would face trial.

They are charged with making illegal statements and could face up to seven years in prison if convicted.Last week, human rights group Amnesty International said the ruling military had continued to arrest political activists, despite its promise to the United Nations that it would halt arrests following September's demonstrations.Amnesty International said 1,850 political prisoners were behind bars, including 96 imprisoned since early November when the government told the world body it had stopped all arrests.Villarosa said it was crucial for Myanmar's fellow members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, along with its giant neighbors China and India, to push the junta to open up to dialogue and reconciliation with its opponents. The U.N. also needs to be involved, she said.

Laura Bush pushes Security Council on Myanmar

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (AFP) -

US First Lady Laura Bush has pressed Panama, which holds the UN Security Council's rotating presidency, to help keep pressure on Myanmar's junta, the White House said Friday.Bush, in New York for a heart disease awareness event on Thursday, met with Panamanian President Martin Torrijos, who was receptive to her message, spokesman Tony Fratto told reporters.

"Mrs Bush took the opportunity to remind and reinforce the importance for the UN Security Council to keep pressure on the military junta in Burma," said Fratto."President Torrijos said that he would of course want to keep the pressure on Burma to make the democratic changes that we all have been calling for," the spokesman said.In mid-January, the UN Security Council bemoaned the slow progress in initiating democratic reforms in Myanmar, where the junta in September crushed the biggest pro-democracy protests in nearly 20 years.

Myanmar junta takes aim at latest Rambo movie

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Police in Myanmar have given DVD hawkers strict orders not to stock the new Rambo movie, which features the Vietnam War veteran taking on the former Burma's ruling military junta, a Yangon resident told Reuters on Friday. Despite the prohibition, pirated copies of the movie are widely available on the streets of the former capital, where it is fast becoming a talking point among a population eager to shake off 45 years of military rule."People are going crazy with the quote 'Live for nothing, die for something'," one resident said, referring to the tagline of the fourth Rambo installment, which opened in the United States this week.

Even though it received lukewarm reviews, it is likely to be a sure-fire hit with opponents of the junta, with some even hoping it could spur a change of regime in the impoverished southeast Asian nation."This movie could fuel the sentiment of Myanmar people to invite American troops to help save them from the junta," one Yangon resident told Reuters by e-mail.In the movie, John Rambo, played by Hollywood superstar Sylvester Stallone, comes out of retirement in Bangkok to save a group of Christian missionaries taken captive by troops in the jungles of eastern Myanmar.As with previous Rambo films, it is short on plot and long on blood and guts -- although viewers appear to think it is all relative."Rambo acted very cruelly, but his cruelty is nothing compared to that of the military junta," a Myanmar student in Thailand, who did not wish to be named, told Reuters.