Myanmar - mehr als nur goldene Pagoden: auch Kindersoldaten, Flüchtlinge...

 

Wie bereits im gestrigen Blogeintrag zu lesen war, besteht Myanmar nicht nur aus goldenen Pagoden, Bambushütten und bunten Märkten. 

Ein kleiner Abriss über ein Land mit mehr als 135 Ethnien, einer mehr als 50 Jahre andauernden (Militär-)Diktatur, einem ganz eigenen Völkerstolz und kulturellen Prägung: 

"YANGON, 23rd January 2015 - The Government of Myanmar today released 42 children and young people who have been recruited and used by the Armed forces. With this latest release, the total number of children discharged in the last year - from January 2014 to January 2015 - reached 418.  
Since June 2012 - under the auspices of the Joint Action Plan signed between the United Nations (UN) and the Government of Myanmar to end and prevent the recruitment and use of children by the Armed Forces – 595 children and young people have been discharged, of which 70% were released in the last twelve months. This reflects Myanmar’s strong commitment to end the recruitment and use of children, in a joint effort of the Tatmadaw, the Government and the UN Country Taskforce on Monitoring and Reporting (CTFMR) on Grave Violations against Children in Armed Conflict."

http://www.unicef.org/myanmar/media_23482.html

"KINDER, NICHT SOLDATEN!

Köln, 12. Februar 2015

UNICEF ZUM WELTTAG GEGEN DEN EINSATZ VON KINDERSOLDATEN

Instabilität, bewaffnete Konflikte und chronische Gewalt führen dazu, dass trotz weltweitem Verbot jedes Jahr zehntausende Kinder rekrutiert und zum Kämpfen gezwungen werden. (...)

Laut aktuellem Bericht des UN-Sicherheitsrats wurden 2013 Kinder und Jugendliche in 15 Ländern als Soldaten missbraucht und waren anderen schweren Formen der Gewalt ausgesetzt: in Afghanistan, Irak, Jemen, der Demokratischen Republik Kongo, Kolumbien, Mali, Myanmar, Nigeria, Philippinen, Somalia, Sudan, Südsudan, Syrien, der Zentralafrikanischen Republik sowie grenzübergreifend in der Zentralafrikanischen Region. Auch aus Indien, Pakistan und Thailand wird über den Einsatz von Kindersoldaten berichtet. Die Vereinten Nationen werfen sieben staatlichen Armeen oder Regierungstruppen und 51 bewaffneten Gruppen vor, weiterhin Minderjährige zu rekrutieren. (...)

Mit Unterstützung von UNICEF konnten seit 1998 mehr als 100.000 Kinder und Jugendliche demobilisiert werden – 2014 gab es Erfolge zum Beispiel in Südsudan, Myanmar und der Zentralafrikanischen Republik. Neben medizinischer und psychologischer Hilfe sind Schul- und Ausbildungsprogramme für ehemalige Kindersoldaten besonders wichtig. Ihre Familien und Dörfer müssen darauf vorbereitet werden, sie wieder aufzunehmen. (...)

UNICEF Deutschland ist Mitglied im Deutschen Bündnis Kindersoldaten, das sich unter anderem für das vollständige Verbot der Rekrutierung Minderjähriger einsetzt. Bisher ist der freiwillige Militärdienst von Jugendlichen über 15 Jahren erlaubt, wenn sie nicht an Kampfhandlungen teilnehmen. Auch die deutsche Bundeswehr nimmt bis heute 17-jährige Freiwillige auf."

http://www.unicef.de/presse/2015/kinder-nicht-soldaten/72074

"Optional Protocol: Not signed
Compulsory recruitment age: No conscription in law
Voluntary recruitment age: 18

Children in Myanmar have been widely used in armed conflict by both state armed forces and non-state armed groups. Despite a minimum age of 18 for military recruitment, over the years many hundreds of boys have been recruited, often forcibly into the national army (Tatmadaw Kyi) and deployed to areas where state forces have been fighting armed opposition groups. Border guard forces, composed of former members of armed opposition groups and formally under the command of the Myanmar military, also have under-18s in their ranks. (...)"

 

http://www.child-soldiers.org/country_reader.php?id=4 

"2015 UNHCR country operations profile - Myanmar

• Fresh displacement was witnessed in 2014 with continued clashes between the Myanmar national army and non-state groups in Kachin and northern Shan States.
  
• UNHCR is part of the inter-agency response to internal displacement in Kachin State and northern Shan State, as well as Rakhine State, addressing the needs of more than 240,000 internally displaced people (IDPs).
  

(...)
The main groups of people of concern to UNHCR in Myanmar in 2015 include people without citizenship, IDPs, refugees, returnees and host communities.
In 2012, violence in Rakhine State forced around 140,000 people to flee their homes.The majority live in government-designated IDP camps near the state capital, Sittwe, and in surrounding townships.
In Kachin State and northern Shan State, more than 100,000 IDPs are displaced and in need of continued humanitarian assistance. They are living in camps in both government-controlled areas, and those under the control of non-state actors.
UNHCR also assists the more than 810,000 people without citizenship in Myanmar.
In south-eastern Myanmar, UNHCR supports communities hosting the estimated 230,000 IDPs living where the organization is operational.
The Office is also preparing for the potential return of some of the 120,000 refugees from Myanmar currently living in temporary camps in Thailand. It is planning support for around 20,000 potential returnees in 2015, although conditions are not yet sufficient to support any organized voluntary return. (...)"

http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49e4877d6.html 

"RANGOON — Camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) near Laiza, the headquarters of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), are facing a shortage of food supplies amid reported restrictions on UN and NGOs’ humanitarian aid deliveries.
Kachin IDPs have seen food stocks dwindle in recent weeks as humanitarian aid has been blocked by the Burmese government, according to Doi Be Za, chair of the KIO’s IDPs and Refugees Relief Committee.
Doi Be Za, who is also a member of the KIO central committee, said: “The UN and NGOs told us that they will come in October. To date, they have not arrived. Now we are surviving with the help of local donors. The government has suspended the UN and NGOs’ permission to come to Laiza, citing security reasons.”
It was not immediately clear if aid deliveries were being denied in relation to an incident on Nov. 19 in which a KIO military academy near Laiza was shelled by the Burma Army, killing 23 cadets.
There are more than 20 IDP camps under KIO management, with an estimated total population of 50,000 people living in them, according to Doi Be Za’s committee.
“The UN told us that they would come in early November but they didn’t come,” said Mary Tawn, head of the humanitarian NGO Wunpawng Ningtoi, based in Mai Ja Yang, Kachin State. “The government has closed the road for security reasons. Now, in the Laiza refugee camps, there is a shortage of basic groceries like rice, oil, salt and peas.” (...)
The UN estimates that more than 100,000 people have been displaced since fighting resumed between the KIO’s armed wing, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), and government forces in 2011. They are living in temporary camps across Kachin State, some of which are administered by the government and others managed by the KIO."

http://www.irrawaddy.org/burma/government-blocking-aid-kachin-idp-camps-kio.html 

Myanmar, also known as Burma, has been ridden by civil war since the end of British colonial rule in 1948. Decades of fighting between armed ethnic minority groups and the Burman-dominated government have resulted in a large number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and mass human rights abuses. Having been under military rule for most of its post-colonial history, the military regime’s harsh suppression of pro-democracy opposition has destroyed trust in the government. Both at home and abroad, the country’s recent democratisation process has provoked high expectations to end the decades-long violent conflicts between the government and the various armed ethnic rebel groups and begin a process of national reconciliation. Despite the conclusions of a number of ceasefire agreements and the prospect of an inclusive political dialogue, continuing conflict in Kachin State and the spread of intercommunal violence between Buddhists and Muslims pose serious threats to the tentative peace process. The scheduled 2015 elections will be both a test for the government’s sincerity in its democratic reform agenda and the sustainability of the peace process. (...)
Civil war between ethnic insurgent groups with the Burman-led central government broke out shortly after independence, making it the longest civil war in the world. Conflicts were fuelled by the government’s policy of centralisation and its attempts to make Buddhism the state religion. When by 1958 ethnic minorities realised they would not be allowed to exercise their right to secede from the union nor be granted autonomous rights as established in the 1947 constitution, they took up arms to wage separate wars of resistance. The country has been in a continuous state of armed conflict and civil war ever since. (...)

http://www.insightonconflict.org/conflicts/myanmar/conflict-profile/