Burmese army using 10-year-olds to replace deserters

I know. Not about travel. Not even verifiable. But worth a read anyway!

Burmese army using 10-year-olds to replace deserters, says report

I didnt know they had a rate of deserters? As this is one of the few choices the Burmese have to keep food on the table and income.

Is the desertions something new since the crackdown a month ago?

Or is this propaganda from the Rights Groups?

"Many desert. In all of Burma, I think two of every five soldiers tries to run away from the military at some point. Some flee within Burma, some reach the borders or Thailand. While I was there, the people who deserted outnumbered the new recruits. If we replaced 10 percent of our strength from new recruits, then 20 percent ran away. But officers often lie and say people don’t flee. If 30 run away, they only report two of them."

—Chit Khaing, a sergeant who kept records for 10 battalions as a military operations command clerk in 2004-05

This comes from the Human Rights Watch report.
The full report can be viewed here via the jotman.com bogspot, a terrific source in itself:

Human rights watch report

To be balanced in what the reality is. Even the opposition uses boys for soldiers. It's the way it is in 3rd world countries. I doubt the Burmese army has much of a need for little boys other then to use them for certain duties like cleaning or cooking. I mean they have such a huge military and many poor kids want to enlist just to have a home and food. Personally I put Little stock in Human Rights groups.

my understanding is that Burma has the worst record in the world in terms of recruiting children for the army. considering what is going on in Africa that is saying a lot.