Media Plea Leads to Child Soldier's Release in Burma

Even hardened military dictators resent bad press. In Burma, a child soldier was returned to his mother after she made appeals to international media outlets.

Sandar Win's 14-year-old son was one of many children forcibly recruited by the Burmese military, but unlike his fellow child soldiers in the ranks of the national army, he was released by the government after Ms. Win pleaded for his return on BBC's Burmese Service and Radio Free Asia (RFA). The military junta that rules Burma is among the most iron-fisted in the world -- perhaps second only to North Korea in its control of the media and flow of people in and out of the country.

The regime is also notorious for its use of child soldiers and its violent repression of political dissidents and ethnic minority groups. Many experts believe that the violence perpetrated by the government amounts to crimes against humanity, if not genocide.

"Name and shame" tactics are often accused of pushing hard-line, repressive dictators (and other assorted unsavory characters) further into unflinchingly extreme positions, but sometimes "shedding a light" and drawing public attention to their abusive policies can be incredibly effective. An accurate judgment on which tactics to deploy in each situation is far more art than science -- and a difficult one, at that.

The unfortunate thing about this case, however, is that it is an isolated one -- the greater problem of the pervasive use of child soldiers by the Burmese military has been much harder to address.

Photo credit: Kaunda