February 10, 2003

The Editor
The Washington Post
1150 15th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20071



Dear Sir,

We find the article ''Burma's Child Soldiers Tell of Army Atrocities`` (Washington Post, Monday, February 10, 2003) by Ellen Nakashima to be just another of the frequent reportings that are based on allegations made by army deserters who are taking refuge on the other side of the border for their own convenience and who are associating themselves with armed groups that are opposing the Government.

The Government of Myanmar does not condone any violation of human rights and perpetrators of the law are always brought to justice whether they be civilians or soldiers. There is now an ICRC presence in the areas under question for the protection of the local populace.

It has also been made clear that recruiting children into the Armed Forces is not the policy of the Government. To put the record straight, I attach herewith a copy of the letter of reply dated 17 October 2002 to ''The Canberra Times`` from the Embassy of Myanmar in Canberra, explaining this issue.

Sincerely,

Sd/-
Information Officer
Embassy of the Union of Myanmar


Attachment

17 October 2002

The Editor
The Canberra Times
No.9, Pirie Street, Fyshwick
ACT. P.O.BOX 7155
Fax No. 62802282

Dear Sir,

We would like to register our protest to the article about alleged child soldiers being forcibly recruited into our army. It is a most biased article based on unproven allegations published by an organization that does not have any concern about the interests of children in Myanmar Indeed this organization regularly does its utmost to slander our armed forces for its own self-promotion and ulterior motives, and to mislead the public.

For instance, just by turning the page and looking at the article, the reader is drawn to photographs of children in the so-called "God's Army". These child soldiers do indeed exist as the article reveals But the article conveniently fails to mention that these child soldiers are not members of the Myanmar armed forces, but rather the members of KNU insurgents and terrorist forces who are endeavouring to overthrow the government through terrorist acts such as exploding bombs in public places, killing and wounding innocent civilians -- men, women and children.

It is yet another great irony of our dangerous times that the authors of the report on which this article is based unwittingly serve to champion the cause of these terrorists when the international community is uniting to combat the terrorist menace.

On the part of the Myanmar government, we are a state-party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. And we strictly follow both the letter and the spirit of this important Human Rights Convention which serves to preserve, promote and protect the rights of children. In fact the Myanmar government had even sent a large high level delegation to Geneva, to appear at a meeting of the United Nations rights of the child committee to factually and categorically disprove the allegations of the type that appear in the article.

We have said it before, and we say it again, that attempts to misuse the issue of the rights of children as a pretext to exert unwarranted pressure on the government will no doubt fail miserably. Such mischievous attempts can actually serve to negate the noble cause of furthering the rights of children.
The Myanmar government has on many occasions clarified to the international community of our ongoing and successful efforts to promote and protect the rights of all children in the country.

On the specific topic of child soldiers, we would like to clarify again that our Armed Forces Recruiting Laws strictly forbid the recruitment of persons under the age of 18. This regulation is strictly adhered to by recruitment officers. And only qualified, mature and physically fit persons are recruited. New recruits are all willing volunteers and there is absolutely no forced recruitment. How can there be forced under-age recruitment as alleged, when we have turned away more able-bodied and mature applicants than we require?

However, on occasion there may be a very few mature and adventurous young people who look older than 18 years, and who in their eagerness to join up lie about their true age and illegally alter documents they present. Such practices are more common in the armed forces of other countries, especially those in the West (if we are to read through the numerous war biographies that appear in esteemed newspapers like the Canberra Times)

Yet photos of young under age soldiers and accompanying articles continue to appear as in the article in question Time and again, child soldiers are photographed lining up, parading, or firing weapons. All such child soldiers are none other than those forcibly recruited by anti-government insurgents, terrorists and narcotics traffickers. None of them are from the Myanmar forces. In only a very few articles is it pointed out that these children are from the anti-government groups. So whatever happened to the very commendable principle of the "fair go"?