GRAPE VINE
Burmese students reject writer's 'child soldiers' allegation
source :
The Nation - Dec 05, 2000.
We are writing in response to the letter by Joe Cummings in The Nation (November 29). He made serious allegations regarding the All Burma
Students' Democratic Front.
Firstly, he alleged that we "recruit child soldiers as young as 13". He gave two Web addresses to verify these, which we have found mysteriously
unavailable.
"No Childhood At All", an independent report into child soldiers in Burma produced by Images Asia, found that "the ABSDF does not recruit, depending
entirely on volunteer recruits".
ABSDF has a strict policy that no children under the age of 17 can fight in the front line. Children under the age of 17 who wilfully want to fight are most
commonly sent to an ABSDF-run high school rather than being exploited in the war as Cummings suggests.
We feel that Cummings' allegations are a personal attack, especially since his Web evidence doesn't seem to exist. If he has evidence to support his
allegations, such as some names, we'd be interested to see it.
Secondly, he stated that "ABSDF is fond of quoting Aung San Suu Kyi, yet Suu Kyi has been unequivocal in her opposition to violent means of
opposition". This is partly true. We have the same aims as Suu Kyi, as we are opposing military dictatorship.
There are differences of approach in every movement. Our aims for the future of Burma are democracy and internal peace. Suu Kyi has had different
experiences with the dictatorship to us. Extreme circumstances pushed thousands of students, who formed the ABSDF, into the jungle in 1988.
We do not take the use of violence lightly but feel there are no other methods of non-violence that we can use [in the circumstances]. We are also
involved in various forms of non-violent activity, such as lobbying and human-rights documentation. We always respect Suu Kyi and other activists
who use non-violent methods of resistance.
Cummings also commented that forced labour is on the decrease and that Lonely Planet remain "sceptical" of evidence from the International Labour
Organisation. We believe that the ILO wouldn't be passing major decisions if they didn't have strong evidence of forced labour.
We feel that Joe Cummings, who is the author of the "Myanmar Lonely Planet Guidebook", is shedding favourable light on the dictatorship in Burma.
We find this disturbing and contradictory to ideals of human rights, peace and democracy.
Foreign Affairs Department
All Burma Students' Democratic Front