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Child soldiers in Burma
and Sri Lanka: Physical-psychological Consequences
By Vanlalfaka Arakan
Keywords: child soldiers,
underage soldiers, Burma, Sri Lanka, LTTE, Insurgents.
Introduction
Although the
International Labor Organization Convention No 182 forbids
forced recruitment of child soldiers and regards it as the
worst form of child abuse, state sponsored army and
non-state armed groups in Burma and Sri Lanka are using
hundreds and thousands of child soldiers for combat, cook,
entertainment and many other purposes. The civil wars in
these countries drag in thousands of innocent children as
combatants.
Civil wars
and the successive military regime has ripped down the
richest country in South-east Asia to the poorest country in
the world. Before to the Australia Senate Foreign Relations
Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Dr Turnell
testified that Burma was one of the richest country in South
East Asia until the late 1960s (Turnell, 2006). According to
Watkins, a professor at the San Jose State University, U Nu
promised in 1952, “promised that
someday every family would own a house and an automobile and
have an income $175 to $200 per month” (Watkins, nd).
However, after Burma became independent state, the
communists went underground and revolted against the
Rangoon. At the same time, many minority armed groups sprang
up throughout Burma, demanding separation from Burma or
greater freedom. The communist broke out in April 1948 just
after four months of Burma’s independence, and the ethnic
rebellion followed it soon. Many part of the country were
under the control of rebellion soon after independence
(Arakan). Hence, Ne Win and his successive military leaders
have been expanding its army and suppressing rebellions in
the name of protecting the country from disintegration.
Under its command, the military regime increases its
military capacity. The biggest expansion of the armed forces
occurred after the Rangoon’s regime crushed students and
civilians’ movement in 1988.
Similar to Burma, Sri Lanka has been experiencing civil wars
for more than two decades. Sri Lanka is dominated by the
Sinhalese. However, the Tamils comprise around one-sixth of
the 18.6 million people, and they constitute majority in
Northeastern Sri Lanka, especially, Jaffna (Briggs, 2005).
Under the British rule, Sinhalese felt that the colonial
power favored the Tamils. After its independence from
British, Sinhalese took up some steps to make Sinhalization
such as making Sinhalese the sole official language. As a
result, Tamils lunched protests that caused the outbreak of
anti-Tamil. According to Hogg, some Tamil politicians in mid
1970s proposed separate Tamil state that led to
establishment of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam by 1980s
(2006). He further states that Tamil ran de facto state in
north and east Sri Lanka by the end of 1989. They collected
their own taxes, ran their police and judicial systems.
Both the Sri
Lanka and Burma are unitary states in which the provinces
has no power. The power flows from the top to the bottom,
leaving the province and local body powerless. As a result,
dissatisfaction of central leadership among minority
communities led to revolt against the centralized governments,
which further brought civil wars in these two countries. The
dragging civil wars demand more combatants in both sides.
Thus, children, including girls who are powerless, become
the main target.
According to
Wessells, there are around 300,000 child soldiers currently
serving as combatants, cook, medics, labors, bodyguards,
spies, etc. (Wessells, n.d). Druba estimates that child
soldiers are much higher, estimate to be 200,000 to 500,000
(2002). Though all state and non-state armed forces denied
recruiting underage children, child soldiers are visible in
many armed forces. Many children in Africa, Colombia, Sri
Lanka and Burma are vulnerable, and they have been recruited
into armed forces by different means. In the report released
by the Human Right Watch in 2002, Burma has 350,000
personnel in its armed forces (2002). Among them,
around 30-40 percent of the army were said to be underage.
Similarly, there are thousands of child soldiers in Sri Lanka, and many
organizations such as UNICEF, Red Cross, and Coalition to
Stop the Use of Child Soldiers found difficulty to collect
accurate data. In October, 2004, UNICEF could record 3,516
cases of child soldiers (HRW, 2004). Wessells said that
children are available abundantly. He further says,
“Commanders frequently prefer child soldiers because they
can be manipulated and terrorized and are often willing to
accept the most dangerous assignments because they lack a
full sense of their own morality” (n.d).
Though wars
are for adults, Burma’s military regime topped in the country-wise chart of
child soldiers, and Colombia and Uganda followed it (Gates,
2004). Many of child soldiers in Burma have been recruited
by the Burmese army. On the other hand, children in Sri
Lanka has been recruited by LTTE. These children
have been used for making mine, manufacturing bombs, and
suicide mission (Brings, 2005). There are two factors that
cause children present in armed forces. According to Wessells, push factors cause children to join armed forces
for the last resort (n.d). For example, when children’s
families have been killed, the children are more likely
to join armed forces voluntarily to take revenge or seek
protection. On the other hand, pull factor is the elements
that attract children. Chakma says, “For many children, the
uniform appears glamorous, and military recruitment provides
an opportunity to prove their adulthood, especially during
the transition period from childhood. Media and ‘Rambo’
images in popular culture encouraged many children to join
[armed forces]” (Chakma, 2000).
Methods
This research focused on children in Burma and Sri Lanka.
Since both countries have been troubled by civil wars for
many years, the socio-psychological problems, and the role
of push-pull factors were look into. Though the definition of the term
‘children’ is varied from one community to one community,
this research included those children who were under the age
of eighteen, which has been regarded as minor by the United
Nations. Moreover, The method of this research was based on
literature. Scholarly peer reviewed literature, the United Nations report,
Human rights reports conducted by governments and legally
sanctioned organizations, conference papers had been used.
To have fewer flaws in the result, personal websites,
reports on newspapers, organizations’ websites of the
subjects were excluded. For instance, since the study was
done on the LTTE in Sri Lanka and Burma’s military regime,
their websites were excluded for statistics and other
information. As the
subjects were not constant, all the literature and materials
used in this research were kept in up-to-date. The
statistics released before 2002 were excluded.
Result
As the civil wars have been dragging on, combatants had been
in great demand. The Sri Lanka civil war was started in
1983, and there was no accurate record of how many people
died in the wars since it broke out. Likewise, the accurate
number of death and casualties in Burma’s civil wars had
been unknown. However, large numbers of children had been
recruited for active combatants. According to Coalition to
Stop the Use of Child Soldiers’ (CSUCS) report in 2002, 40
percent of children killed in battle were children (2002).
In Sri Lanka, coercion,
push and pull factors had been visible among child soldiers.
Children were abducted by LTTE while they were on the way to
their schools, playgrounds, shopping centers, etc. According to Human
Rights Watch, there were less than 50 per cent of children
who would go to school because their parents would keep them
in home in fear of abduction by LTTE (Human Rights Watch,
2004). Human Rights Watch further quoted Harendra de Silva,
chair of the National Child Protection Authority, as saying,
“In 1994, I found that one in nineteen children recruits was
abducted. Now in 2004, the reverse is true and only one in
nineteen is a volunteer” (2004). Moreover, the LTTE asked
every house to provide them one person for armed combatants.
The Human Rights Watch quoted a girl as saying,
My parents
refused to give me to the LTTE so about fifteen of them came
to my house- it was both men and women, in uniforms, with
rifles, and guns in holsters…I was fast asleep when they
came to get me at one in the morning…These people dragged me
out of the house. My father shouted at them, saying, “What
is going on?”, but some of the LTTE soldiers took my father
away towards the woods and beat him…They also pushed my
mother onto the ground when she tried to stop them.
Torture, harassments and killing were
the tools the LTTE used for those who resisted the
recruitment. A girl stated that their house were burnt down
by the LTTE when they left their home after receiving a
letter from LTTE, asking the family to provide them one
person for the mission.
Similar to Sri Lanka,
thousands of children were used by state and non-state armed
forces as combatants. As human rights groups had no access
to government armed forces and non-state armed forces, it
was hard to get the accurate data. As the figure one shows,
50,000 children were estimated to be in state armed forces.
Children in non-state armed forces such as Karen National
Union, Kachin Independent Army, Kareni Army, and United Wa
State Army were around three thousand. The numbers of
children in other non-state armed forces such as Shan State
Army-South, All Burma Democratic Front, etc, were unknown
because they did not want to release any statistical
information (CSUCS, 2002). Similar to LTTE, the Tatmadaw
Gyi (Government army) used coercion in recruiting children.
Railway stations, bus stations, markets, festivals, streets
were the good place for the army where they found children.
They approached young children because they could be
intimidated easily. The recruiting team was consisted of few
soldiers led by corporal or sergeant (Human Rights Watch,
2002). Children were also abducted for soldiers. According
to Human Rights Watch, “the [monastery] boys kept
disappearing, and on many occasions the monks found them at
nearby military bases where they were about to be sent to
recruit holding camps” (2002).
The LTTE
admitted having children as its soldiers to United Nations
Children’s Fund (UNICEF). With demands from parents and the
UNICEF, children were released from its service in April, 2004. However,
they were recruited again for the same purpose (Human Rights
Watch, 2004). In contrast to LTTE, the Burmese government
denied its existence of child soldiers and forced
recruitment in its armed forced. Its Permanent Mission to
the United Nations replied to Human Rights Watch, “The
Myanmar Tatmadaw (armed forces) is an all voluntary army.
There are no conscripts and the recruitment into armed
forces is entirely voluntary” (Human Rights Watch, 2002).
After children were forcibly recruited, the recruiters would
change the birth year of the children. The permanent mission
further said, “[a]ny person who recruits children in
contravention with the [Defense Service] Act is taken action
under article 65 of the Act and is liable to suffer
imprisonment, which may extend to 7 years” (Human Rights
Watch, 2002).
The other factor that
caused children to join armed forces was push factors. The
children in Burma were asked to show national identify card,
which they had not had. Then, children were given option to
join army or be sent to jail. As there were no other
options, children ended up in army (Human Rights Watch,
2002). Some children joined armed forces for last resort.
According to Becker, “Many children, their lives devastated
by poverty or war, join armed groups out of desperation”
(n.d). Likewise, though there was no statistics, many Tamil children
were pushed to LTTE due to poverty or lack of good
education. Human Rights Watch quoted a woman as saying, “My
daughter was fourteen when she joined the LTTE. My husband
died. We had no income. No food…I was in paddy field. I came
back and searched everywhere and then someone told me that
she went with the LTTE” (2004)
Some children joined armed
forces for better and glamorous life, closer to friends or
siblings, revenge, security, etc. Wessells said, “For youth
who have grown up in abject poverty and who have been
attacked and have felt powerless, the gun and the military
uniform confer a measure of power and prestige that they
could not have obtained through other means” (n.d). The Sri
Lanka’s LTTE used the tactics to attract children by
glamorizing their activities. Malathy, a Tamil rebel girl
was killed in 1987 in the combat, and she was honored as
martyr to the cause (Briggs, 2005). The Human Rights
Watched recorded,
[The] LTTE
recruitment of children has over the years been fueled by
several factors. First, a sophisticated LTTE propaganda
machine regularly exposed Tamil children throughout the
North and East to special events honoring LTTE heroes,
parades of LTTE cadres, public display of wars
paraphernalia, and a speeches and videos, particularly in
schools. Families of LTTE heroes were afforded special
respect, and children were drawn to the status of glamour of
serving as cadres (2004).
One boy joined the LTTE because his
house was burnt and his neighbor’s girls were raped by the
Sri Lanka’s soldiers. Ida, a Tamil girl, joined the LTTE to
take revenge of her brother who was killed by the Sri Lanka
army. The other boy joined LTTE for separate Tamil country.
Unlike Sri Lanka, many children joined the Tatmadaw because
they got salary, prestige and power. Some children in Burma
joined the non-state armed forces for democracy, or their
families’ members were killed or tortured by the Burmese
soldiers (Human Rights Watch, 2002).
Unlike Burma where there
was no suicide mission being used by any of the armed
forces, children were used as suicide mission by the LTTE.
Moreover, girls were preferred over boy for the mission.
According to Briggs, 30 percent of the LTTE’s casualties in
1993 were women (2005). Wessells stated that the LTTE
selected girls who showed strong motivation to be suicide
bombers, and they were honored as martyr and celebrated by
community. In Burma, Kachin Independent had girls as
combatants, and no other non-stated armed forces were
recorded as having any girl in their forces.
Burma’s Tatmadaw and Sri
Lanka’s tactics of training were very similar. Children were
sent to recruiting centers in different places after they
were recruited. Then, they were further sent to schools or
training centers in accordance with children’s age. In
Burma, though some children were kept by officers as
servants, most of the children were sent to Ye Nyunt
(Brave Sprouts) camp or a military base. Then, they were
sent to schools. According to Human Rights Watch, there
were around fifty Ye Nyunt camps throughout Burma.
The boys at these camps were the aged of four to sixteen
(Human Rights Watch, 2002). In the LTTE, children of twelve
and above were directly sent to training camps, and the
younger were kept at a special unit, which was referred as
the “chicken” unit. These young children had to take
classes. The children who were poor and parentless would be
sent to the LTTE ran orphanages where they had to attend
schools. During holidays, they were sent to LTTE camps until
they were old enough to be full-time cadres (Human Rights
Watch, 2004).
The training was harsh for
children. Around 250 to 300 in one batch, children were trained in weapon
and military strategy including rigorous physical exercise.
The LTTE’s cadres had to get up at four in the morning and
exercised. Similarly, the Burmese’s cadres had to get up at
6 in the morning, and had to run for miles. Sandbags were
put on their bags while they ran. In contrast to the LTTE’s
basic training, the Burmese cadre’s training was more
advanced. The basic training included military parade, small
arms, large weapons, military tactics and deploying troops
for battles. They had to crawl on the ground because other
soldiers would keep firing above their head. (Human Rights
Watch, 2002). There was no record or any data for advance
training in Burmese Army. However, the LTTE’s soldiers had
to train for advance course. The advance courses were
basically decided by superior officers. The advance training
included landmines, bombs, heavy weapons, security,
intelligence and non-military skills such as administration
and medicine, etc.
 Figure 2
Though this figure is not obtained from the research of Sri
Lanka and Burma, it shows the general
duty of child soldiers. After the training, child soldiers
were sent to different battalions. One batch of around 250
was assigned to different battalions. No more than 20
soldiers were assigned to the same battalions. In Burma, as
the army had been expanding, some soldiers who graduated
recently would have to build new camps for new battalions
(Human Rights Watch, 2002). One LTTE cadre said,
I participated in many battles. When the soldiers got
wounded, they would be left there screaming…When the army
comes we were supposed to throw the grenade at them or blow
ourselves up. There are plenty of times when this happened.
One other Tamil girl got injured and had to be hospitalized
for a year. However, after she recovered, she was sent to
battle again (Human Rights Watch, 2004). Similarly, Hla
Thein, a Burmese child soldiers was surprised to find
himself as a battalion’s elite commando unit. He said, “I
was a commando. We were mostly in the frontline” (Human
Rights Watch, 2002). Some were lucky to be assigned to
patrol unit. They would patrol around their unit or around
battles. Some were sent to intelligence unit and some were
stayed back to look after the camps.
Physical-psychological torture started as soon
as they were recruited. There was little discussion about
the impact of psycho-emotional problems in literature, how
did these children suffer emotionally was unknown. However,
many of the physical and psychological include torture
physically, humiliation, deprivation of love, and inability
to return to normal life.
Firstly, the literature review shows that many children were
tortured physically. When children resisted, they were
subjected to be beat them until they agreed to join the forces
(Human Rights Watch, 2002). There were forced to sit for
long hours by cross-legged, and their hand on knees.
Children who tried to run away were beaten in front of the
entire unit to instill shame in children’s mind. In Burma,
if the runaway children were caught, he would be beaten by
the entire unit. One child says,
We want to run away but it wasn’t easy. Three ran away, but
one was caught. He had to dive his face down on the ground,
then every Ye Nyunt [military training school] boy had to
beat him one time. Most of the hits were on his legs, with a
bamboo about this big [two inches in diameter]” (Human
Rights Watch, 2002).
When they could not perform in the training, they were
beaten, and forced to do the training. It was no exception
to anyone. The LTTE’s cadre had to get up in four in the
morning, did every kind of tasks that were supposed to be
performed by adult soldiers.
Secondly, children were humiliated by different
means. In Burma, children were asked to strip in front of
unit, and they also had to strip whenever they had to go to
toilet. Thirdly, these children had no family contact. They
were not supposed have any kind of contacts with their
family. Both in Sri Lanka and Burma, parents would come to
army camps, looking for their children. However, the
authority would not allow any parents to meet with their
children. Vimila said, “I could not see my parents. Lots of
times, my parents came to see me, but the LTTE would not
allow it” (Human Rights Watch, 2004). In Burma, if parents
wanted their children back with them, they had to pay large
sum of money to authority. Than Aung, a Burmese child
soldier narrated his experience, “I saw some parents arrive
at Mingaladon and talk to the officer. They gave them some
money and then took their son from the Su saun Yay
[recruitment center]” (Human Right Watch, 2002).
Finally, many of child soldiers had hard time to
return to normal life after they were relieved from their
active duty. In his book “Child Soldiers, Wessells stated,
The hidden wounds often related as much to children’s
current living situation as to memories of the past.
Many
former child soldiers experience shame ore are stigmatized
and isolated. ..have difficulties regulating
their behavior
in ways required by civilians life” (Wesselss, 2006).
Some
of these child soldiers would not want to return to civil
life after they were grown up.
Discussion/Conclusion
The general perception of children being recruited by
coercion by many state and non-states armed forces supported
the ongoing expansion of Burmese’s tatmadaw. After the State
Peace and Development Council (formerly State Law and Order
Restoration Council) took control of state’s power from
socialist Ne Win regime in 1988, the armed forces were
doubled to combat the internal insurgents rather than
protecting the country from any external forces. In contrast
to Burma, there has been mixture of the mode of recruitments
in LTTE. Although the nature of research limited concrete
statistics of how the LTTE recruited its cadres, some Sri
Lanka’s Tamil joined LTTE voluntarily to free its land from
the dominant Sinhalese, and some were forcibly recruited
against their wills.
After civil war broke out between the dominant Sri Lanka’s
Sinhalese and Tamil, around 64,000 people died in the
conflict. According to Hogg, the igniter of civil war was on
the status of official language of Sri Lanka. When the Sri Lanka’s (formerly Ceylon, renamed Sri Lanka in 1972)
government announced Sinhalese as its official language,
many Tamil protested against it (Hogg, 2006). Tamil were
afraid of deprivation of unemployment due to their inability
to speak Sinhalese. In the same way, many minorities in
Burma accused the successive government for Burmanization of
the country.
Children are more likely to join their own ethnic based
armed forces voluntarily than other armed forces. In Sri
Lanka, the Human Rights Watch and other not-for-profit
organizations documented children willingly joined LTTE. On
the other hand, there was no documentation of children
joining state armed forces. The International protocol and
other treaties do not stop many governments in recruiting
children. For example, the United States sent more than
fifty child soldiers to Iraq in 2003 and early 2004 (Becker
n.d). Children who join armed forces are those who have been
living in conflict areas. For example, the Tamil children
join LTTE whereas Sinhalese children do not join armed
forces because the later have access to education and other
training. In Burma, coercion was used to recruited children
for state armed forces while voluntary recruitment was used
by non-state armed forces.
Being Burma and Sri Lanka are poor countries, children has
been more likely to be child soldiers in either forces of
state or non-state armed forces. Gates emphasized, “most
civil wars occur in countries with high level of poverty”
(Gates 2004). When there is high level of poverty, there is
less level of the resources that further lead to poor
infrastructure. Thus, some of the children use armed forces
as the last resort for their livelihood.
This research was done based on peer reviewed literatures
and other websites. Hence, it has no control over its
subjects. Moreover, researchers who have done study on child
soldiers in Burma and Sri Lanka, have no access to the armed
forces. They were based on interviewed in more peaceful
areas. For instance, the Human Rights Watch interviewed its
subjects along Burma-Thai border. As it was not first handed
research, there might be flaw in it. In the Sri Lanka,
interviewed were conducted at rehabilitation centers and
other places in cities. Human rights activists and
researchers had no free access to the information, and the
information was also unverified. For example, the Human
Rights Watch stated that four year old child was found in
army training school in Burma. However, it could not verify
whether the child was groomed for soldiers or it was a child
of any of the soldiers at the school.
Empirical method has not been extensively used for
researching child soldiers in Sri Lanka and Burma. The
finding could be different from the present statistics and
information if researchers could have observed subjects.
Research is also needed to focus on psychological
consequences of these child soldiers. Physical consequences
and other related impacts have been documented, but it there
are few literatures on psychological consequences. Moreover,
if there were protocol that could compel the recruiters to
release data, it would be more helpful for many researchers.
Since pre-history, human have been struggling to get scarce
resources such as food, shelter or territory, power and
freedom. War is a part of human nature. In Burma, the civil
war is struggle between the military regime and insurgents
over territory and power. The minority people in Burma want
their own territory where they can have power and
influences. They do not want the repressive military regime
to control their life, and decide their livelihood. They
want to live in their own territory without fears. In the
same way, the Tamils in Sri Lanka want their own territory
where they can practice their own culture, religion and live
without any fears.
Without ending struggle over territory and power, child
soldiers will exist in both countries. Tamil children will
join LTTE even though they know the consequences. The
propaganda and glorification of ethnic war used by LTTE will
pull many children to it. Similarly, the atrocities of Sri
Lanka’s army in the war zone will push many children to join
LTTE. In the same way, unless the current military regime in
Burma change its policy and make Burma a liberal democracy
country, there will be insurgents to get freedom. The
military regime that has no modern technology will have to
rely on the human for controlling and suppressing
insurgents. The expansion of army to control insurgents will
continue to cost thousands of innocent children. Thus, both
Sri Lanka’s government and Burma’s military regime need to
compromise and make the countries for children because today
children are the future of tomorrow.
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May 3rd 2007 |
