Burma: Children Bought and Sold by Army Recruiters

Based on an investigation in Burma, Thailand and China, the 135-page report, “Sold to Be Soldiers: The Recruitment and Use of Child Soldiers in Burma,” found that military recruiters and civilian brokers receive cash payments and other incentives for each new recruit, even if the recruit clearly violates minimum age or health standards.

One boy told Human Rights Watch that he was forcibly recruited at age 11, despite being only 1.3 meters tall (4’3”) and weighing less than 31 kilograms (70 pounds). Officers at recruitment centers routinely falsify enlistment records to list children as 18, the minimum legal age for recruitment.

Recruiters target children at train and bus stations, markets and other public places, and often threaten them with arrest if they refuse to join the army. Some children are beaten until they agree to “volunteer.”

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