Stop Using Thai Children In Deep South Security Operations, Report Urges

[webfact]

Stop using kids in security operations, report urges

By THE NATION

The Thai government is exposing children to "significant risk" by permitting village defence militias (VDMs) in the restive deep South to use them in their security work.

The ongoing insurgency in the three southernmost provinces has claimed more than 4,300 lives since January 2004.

In a report released yesterday, the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers and the Justice for Peace Foundation (JPF) of Angkhana Neelaphaijit said children between the ages of nine and 17 had taken part in weapons training with government-trained VDMs, known locally as the Chor Ror Bor.

Although the Interior Ministry does not recruit under-18s into VDMs, it needs to do more to prevent them from getting involved with their activities, said Victoria F Adam, director of the London-based NGO.

"The militias are armed with a mixture of shotguns and automatic weapons," the JPF's Arachapon Nimitkulpon said at a press conference. "On occasion, the militias are required to take part in military operations, including searches for insurgent suspects," she said.

Arachapon said local communities appeared to be unconcerned and supportive at times of children from their villages being used for security purposes.

The VDMs were set up in 1985 to replace the network of village defence volunteers that first emerged in the 1960s to combat communist insurgency. JPF and the coalition conducted field research in Thailand's deep South last year, finding that children were conducting similar tasks as the government-trained VDM members in at least 13 of the 19 villages they studied.

"They patrol the village, man checkpoints and guard sites vulnerable to attack," the report said. "They may also be required to assist the local police or the military to identify suspects, including suspected members of armed groups, and on occasion are required to participate in military operations in the surrounding area."

Adam cited an incident in which two children were killed in a military operation. She said evidence indicated that Malay-Muslim separatists were also using child soldiers in their attacks against the Thai state.

"Children have suffered greatly because of the armed violence in the South and a more comprehensive strategy is needed to protect them," Adam said. "Any military activity is detrimental to children."

The report called on the government to "explicitly criminalise" the use of children under 18 and warned that Thailand could end up on the UN Security Council's watch list - known as the Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism - if the use of children in conflict zones continued unchecked.

-- The Nation 2011-03-04

[Siam Simon]

Maybe Buchholz can post that photo of the red shirt protestor holding a child above the barricades in last year's Bangkok troubles (for the umpteenth time) as a chastisement to the Army and their locally-appointed rangers. But, seriously, this story is simply appalling. Will any real action be taken on this issue?

[jayjay0]

Well this on the surface seems to be appalling. But when you stop to think about it the kids are just as big a target for the terrorists as the adults and if able to should be able to defend them selves.

this does not mean I support using them in all actions but they should be able to do so if the need arises.

If a village does not have enough adults to protect it's self they really have no choice. It would be nice if we could apply western philosophy on a Asian culture but the results can be devastating. [Deadly]

Trust me the terrorists could care less how old they are.

[asiawatcher]

[Flatouthruthefog]

<br />Well this on the surface seems to be appalling. But when you stop to think about it the kids are just as big a target for the terrorists as the adults and if able to should be able to defend them selves.<br /><br />this does not mean I support using them in all actions but they should be able to do so if the need arises. <br />If a village does not have enough adults to protect it's self they really have no choice. It would be nice if we could apply western philosophy on a Asian culture but the results can be devastating. [Deadly]<br /><br />Trust me the terrorists could care less how old they are.<br />

<br /><br /><br />

Agree, very sadly.

But of course, you mean could NOT care less.

But we've been through (sorry thru) all that before, huh?

[jayjay0]

<br />Well this on the surface seems to be appalling. But when you stop to think about it the kids are just as big a target for the terrorists as the adults and if able to should be able to defend them selves.<br /><br />this does not mean I support using them in all actions but they should be able to do so if the need arises. <br />If a village does not have enough adults to protect it's self they really have no choice. It would be nice if we could apply western philosophy on a Asian culture but the results can be devastating. [Deadly]<br /><br />Trust me the terrorists could care less how old they are.<br />

<br /><br /><br />

Agree, very sadly.

But of course, you mean could NOT care less.

But we've been through (sorry thru) all that before, huh?

You are rite.

Thanks for pointing that out.

If there is a moderator reading this can you change that.

Edited March 4, 2011 by jayjay0

[TAWP]

Maybe Buchholz can post that photo of the red shirt protestor holding a child above the barricades in last year's Bangkok troubles (for the umpteenth time) as a chastisement to the Army and their locally-appointed rangers. But, seriously, this story is simply appalling. Will any real action be taken on this issue?

Teenagers are allowed to take part in junior military training in many countries (JROTC etc). What we talk about here is teenagers taking part presumably voluntarily, not an infant being put on a barricade in a live-fire zone...

[jayjay0]

Maybe Buchholz can post that photo of the red shirt protestor holding a child above the barricades in last year's Bangkok troubles (for the umpteenth time) as a chastisement to the Army and their locally-appointed rangers. But, seriously, this story is simply appalling. Will any real action be taken on this issue?

Teenagers are allowed to take part in junior military training in many countries (JROTC etc). What we talk about here is teenagers taking part presumably voluntarily, not an infant being put on a barricade in a live-fire zone...

]

Just go's to show how much he cares about the problems in the South.

He would sing a different tune if he thought the red shirts and There boss Thaksin could profit from it.

[Bagwan]

With the terrorist use of remote controlled bombs, or those with time fuses, the children are at risk anyway. Is this yet another NGO sucking taxpayers money out of the UK Government for no good reason other than to stick their noses into something that does not concern them? Do they delude themselves that anybody in Thailand gives a fig about what they think? That they will pay attention for even a nanosecond? I suggest that the NGO send a representative to Thailand where they will see children in mortal danger every which way that they turn, such as the kids going to school on an overloaded motorbike. That so many Thai tots and kids manage to survive into adulthood is one of the wonders of the World.

How many children died in the fire bombing of Hamburg and Dresden, or Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Didn't the Nazis recruit lads as young as 14 into the Wehrmacht in the death throes of the Third Reich? At the age of 8 I watched as the bodies of my childhood friend and his mother were being carried out of the ruins of their house after a direct hit from a V1. There is a war being waged down South and in wars there are victims - of all ages. Maybe these do gooders should undergo a reality check.

Nearly every day I see signs telling me to be careful in my driving as the vehicle ahead of me that has just carved me up, or emerged from a soi without checking for approaching traffic, may be carrying a child. Yeah, let's take care of the little ones.

[zthyadat]

There is a war being waged down South and in wars there are victims - of all ages. Maybe these do gooders should undergo a reality check.

I've always found it rather odd that "do gooder" is mostly used pejoratively.