Tatmadaw recruits newcomers to military duties in accord with the provisions of relevant laws, rules and regulations agreed upon by the Committee on Prevention of Recruitment of Child Soldiers and the CTFMR.
Myanmar formed the Committee on Prevention of Recruitment of Child Soldiers on 5 January 2014. During the period from 2004 to 27 June 2012, Tatmadaw allowed discharging of 597 children from military duties.
The Myanmar government and the Country Task Force on Monitoring and Reporting (CTFMR) signed the plan of action on the prevention of recruitment for child soldiers on 27 June 2012 in order to erase Tatmadaw (Army) from the list mentioned in the report of the UN Secretary-General.
According to the action plan, Tatmadaw allowed discharging of 1,029 wrongly recruited underage soldiers from their duties in cooperation with the CTFMR and handed them over to their parents. Moreover, a total of 28 Tatmadaw members approved as underage persons by CTFMR were handed over to their families on 13 May 2022. As such, a total of 1,057 underage Tatmadaw members have been handed over to their parents.
During the period from January to October 2022, the youths who came to the military recruitment units for discharging military duties were scrutinized. In this regard, a total of 45 youths were believed to be underage and 140 more youths who were not eager to join Tatmadaw, totalling 185 were not accepted for military duties and allowed to return home.
Currently, plans are underway to verify 79 soldiers who are suspected of wrong recruitments with the data based on the information of CTFMR. If they really commit to the restrictions on military recruitment, they will be discharged from Tatmadaw. Further 12 suspect Tatmadaw members sent by CTFMR in 2021 and 2022 are under verification.
To be able to prevent the recruitment of child soldiers and the joining of underage youths to Tatmadaw, relevant ministries cooperate with each other to raise the awareness of the youths. Committee meetings take place as usual for implementation of the vision of the Committee on Prevention of Recruitment of Child Soldiers not to recruit child soldiers. Moreover, the progress of the preventive measures on accomplishments of the minutes decided at the meetings is informed to CTFMR.
As such, discharging the child soldiers from Tatmadaw (Army) showed the efforts of the Committee on Prevention of Recruitment of Child Soldiers to seek the recognition of CTFMR. That being so, the systematic recruitment of soldiers will have to polish the image of Tatmadaw and its members as individuals.
