I love Facebook. I have liked certain sites and every once in a while, a status gives me insight into things I either don’t know or haven’t thought of. Yesteday, it was a Mental Floss article about “modern” antiques, i.e. things today’s children have never seen. Boy, did I feel old when I saw #1 was a 45-rpm record adapter!
However, today’s “Ah” moment on Facebook was not amusing. United to End Genocide posted that Burma has more child soldiers than any other country in the world. As a citizen of country where the majority of people try to protect their children from such atrocities, this is just almost unthinkable.
So, I knew I had to do some research. First of all, I had heard of Burma, but I wasn’t even sure where it was. It is wedged between India, Bangladesh, China, Laos, and Thailand. It is a relatively large country (with a little over 60 million people) but that doesn’t mean it is in good shape. It had a long running civil war and was under military rule from 1962 until last year. It is resource rich, but has an underdeveloped economy. The health care system is terrible and the U.N. has received numerous reports of human rights violations including child labor and human trafficking. The United States as well as Canada and the European Union have imposed sanctions against Burma.
But, what about the children soldiers? The government claims it is trying to clean up its act, but it is estimated that children are being sold to the military for money (as little as $40) and a bag of rice or can of petrol. The Independent (a London-based paper) estimates that in the first three months of 2012, at least 24 children were forced to become soldiers in Burma. That’s at least two a week. During the first four months of 2012, the International Labour Organisation received 72 complaints of underage recruitment into the military.
Tomorrow, I’ll talk more about the abysmal situation of child soldiers in Burma.