THE Committee on the Prevention of Recruitment of Child Soldiers convened its 1/2025 meeting yesterday morning, presided over by State Administration Council Member Deputy Prime Minister Union Minister for Defence General Maung Maung Aye.
Speaking at the meeting, the Union Minister, who is also chairman of the committee, emphasized that 597 underage soldiers who were mistakenly recruited before reaching the age of majority between 2004 and 2012 have been allowed to be withdrawn from Tatmadaw before the cooperation with the Country Task Force on Monitoring and Reporting-CTFMR. Then, the government signed a Plan of Action with CTFMR in 2012. After that collaboration, 1,057 underage soldiers who were mistakenly recruited have been allowed to be withdrawn from Tatmadaw and sent back to their parents from 2012 to date.
Tatmadaw conducts recruitment following the approved stipulations of the committee and CTFMR, laws, and regulations. Moreover, the education programmes are also being conducted with the ministries concerned, and committee meetings are also held regularly to implement the objectives of the committee. The work completions are reported to CTFMR.
Then, the committee members and representatives discussed the progress in preventing children from serving in Tatmadaw and clarified the status of previous decisions and conditions for implementation across relevant sectors.
The Union minister then mentioned the discussion to be held with CTFMR in February 2025 and plans to transfer the underage soldiers to their parents, and concluded the meeting. — MNA/KTZH
