Army moves to end child recruitment

The army has taken action against 327 soldiers who were involved in underage recruitment last year.

As the Tatmadaw is escalating efforts to free underage soldiers, 50 officers and 277 non-commissioned ranks are facing charges, said a source from the armed forces. 

The initiative allowed the discharge of 42 child soldiers on January 23, bringing the total number of child soldiers freed last year to 418. 

Myanmar was found to be one of seven countries recruiting minors, aged under 18.

Children in Myanmar have been widely used in armed conflict by both state armed forces and non-state armed groups, according to Child Soldier International. Despite a minimum age of 18 for military recruitment, over the years many hundreds of boys have been recruited, often forcibly into the national army and deployed to areas where state forces have been fighting armed opposition groups. Border guard forces, composed of former members of armed opposition groups and formally under the command of the Myanmar military, also have under-18s in their ranks.

The number of 418 is a new record number since the "tatmadaw" army signed a 2012 pact with the United Nations, to prevent the underage recruitment and allow for the release of the underage recruits.

Since the pact was signed, a total of 595 children have been been freed.

There are no verifiable figures on how many children are currently serving in Myanmar's huge military, which has faced a slew of accusations over rights abuses, including the forced recruitment of children to work as porters or even human mine detectors.

"Within a one year period of time, this is a record number of children coming out of the Armed Forces, reflecting the accelerated efforts of the Government of Myanmar and the Tatmadaw to put an end to the harmful practice of recruiting and using children," Renata Lok-Dessallien, UN resident coordinator in Myanmar, said in a statement.

All those released by the military so far were under the age of 18 when the pact with the UN was signed in June 2012. 

While human rights groups have welcomed the gradual release of child soldiers, many have decried the fact that Myanmar's military has yet to completely halt their use.

In October, US President Barack Obama decided to keep Myanmar on a list of nations subject to US sanctions over its use of child soldiers. 

The law prevents US military assistance to or the sale of licences for commercial military sales to cited nations.

The UN says at least seven rebel groups in Myanmar are also known to recruit child soldiers - Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, the Kachin Independence Army, the Karen National Liberation Army, the Karen National Liberation Army-Peace Council, the Karenni Army, the Shan State Army-South and the United Wa State Army.