Asian Angle | Myanmar junta holds children hostage as ‘collective punishment’ for alleged resistance links
- Children from families accused of resisting Myanmar’s military junta have also taken up arms to fight back
- The junta arrests children from such families as they are seen as an enemy, according to a former political prisoner
Since the February 2021 coup in Myanmar, children across the country have faced rising poverty and limited options for education and healthcare. Whether directly or indirectly, they have been at the receiving end of conflicts resulting from military operations, and political arrests and detentions.
More children have been displaced due to the decades-long civil war between various ethnic armed groups and the Myanmar military.
A new trend has emerged since the coup, whereby the military has targeted children from families and communities perceived to be supporting the anti-junta resistance movement. This has precipitated a vicious cycle, where children have joined resistance groups and taken up arms against the junta.
The plight of Myanmar’s children is unfortunate but not new. Myanmar’s military has ramped up air and drone attacks, targeting communities perceived as supporting any entity opposing military rule, since the coup. These attacks have only intensified in frequency in 2023.
Children invariably number among the victims of such attacks, several of them younger than 16 (point of disclosure: as a teenager, the author was detained and tortured for taking part in student protest movements in the 1990s).
No less concerning is the increase in the number of children detained for political reasons. Again, the authorities’ wilful violation of children’s rights is not entirely new in Myanmar. Data released recently shows the number of children detained for political reasons after the coup has increased.
The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners-Burma (AAPP) has reported that from February 2021 to August 2023, 658 children were arrested, with 373 of them still in detention.
Speaking to the author, AAPP founder and joint secretary Bo Kyi said the number of children who were arrested went up to 663 in September. Before the coup, there was only one child detainee under the ousted government of Aung San Suu Kyi. The new figure is worrying.
