Daily clashes since the 2021 coup and resultant casualties have seriously depleted the ranks of the Myanmar military, prompting it to forcibly recruit males of any age.
That includes children.
The issues of forced recruitment and use of child soldiers are not new in the Myanmar military—they date back to 2000s, when the then regime was establishing new military headquarters and urgently needed recruits to fill up vacancies.
Generals then relied not only on traditional recruitment units but assigned combat battalions to find conscripts.
In other words, recruitment was broken even before the military seized power yet again in 2021, triggering a nationwide armed revolt. But the crisis deepened over time until the regime finally activated the long-dormant Conscription Law in February last year, requiring all men aged 18-35 and women aged 18-27 to serve for at least two years.
The junta’s recruitment of child soldiers has surged, Human Rights Watch said in a report on June 20, a significant number enlisted since it introduced mandatory military service.
So far the military has enlisted 14 batches of conscripts, totaling an estimated 70,000 based on its plans for 5,000 per batch.
The regime claims it only conscripts men aged between 18 and 35 who are chosen by lottery at ward or village level. But the Myanmar Defense and Security Institute, an independent research group run by military defectors, reported that underage recruitment has increased since the seventh batch, along with abusive conscription tactics such as abducting young men and boys and holding family members of missing conscripts hostage.
Meanwhile, wealthy families are paying bribes to help their children avoid conscription, which has led to a market for buying and selling substitutes.
Mostly the regime seems to think that a teenager of 16 or 17 is “close enough” to 18 to qualify for forcible enlistment. In one reported case, a 17-year-old was forcibly recruited in Yangon in September last year.
Three junta soldiers captured in Karenni State said they were only 17 when they were conscripted, suggesting that there is rising pressure from senior leaders to meet quotas.
Meanwhile, the market for substitutes is thriving. The price of a substitute is around 10 million kyats (around US$ 2,200), because if people are selected or abducted for conscription, they have to pay 8 to 10 million kyats to avoid conscription.
This recruitment crisis has forced the regime to target men and boys from all walks of life—the urban poor, displaced people, as well as ethnic and religious minorities. That includes Rohingya, who are in principle barred from serving in the military because they are denied citizenship.
The military has never openly addressed the issue of child soldiers, but it is clear that it sends children to the front lines and uses them as guides, porters, and at times as human shields.
In 2012, the military signed a joint action plan with the UN to end recruitment and use of children and later ostensibly cooperated with global agencies like the International Labor Organization, Save the Children, and World Vision to end the military use of children. But in reality the issue was never tackled.
On June 19, the UN secretary-general reported that the UN verified 2,138 grave violations against children in armed conflict in Myanmar in 2024, including recruitment of children, with about 1,200 additional violations pending verification.
They included killing and maiming, abduction, recruitment, rape, and military use of and attacks on schools and hospitals, the report said.
But they also included over 1,800 cases of recruitment of children as young as 12 by junta and affiliated forces since the coup. The UN notes that “cases are likely significantly underreported due to monitoring challenges and the fear of retaliation.”
The practice is possible because decades of military rule have given the military influence over all government departments, allowing it to bypass any oversight or accountability.
Thus the military can use its influence on government departments to forge the necessary documents, from household registration certificates to birth certificates and citizenship IDs, to “legally” recruit children.
Once they arrive at their assigned positions, they are then given new citizenship IDs by local departments based on information provided by the military.
But the UN Secretary-General also listed seven “non-state” armed groups as recruiting and using child soldiers.
Certain ethnic armed organizations draft youngsters in areas under their control as they force people to move out of those areas. Like the military regime, some EAOs have launched an official enlistment drive.
One result has been that many underage people are fleeing the country.
As the civil war intensifies, demand for conscripts will remain high, so the issue of child soldiers is expected to persist, not just within the military but also among other armed groups.
Swe Taw is a defector from Myanmar military.
