Fantasy world

YANGON, Myanmar - Hundreds of children under age 5 die from preventable diseases each day in military-ruled Myanmar, the second-worst mortality rate for children in Asia except for Afghanistan, U.N. officials said Wednesday.

Dr. Osamu Kunii, the nutrition expert in Myanmar for the U.N. Children's Fund, said there were between 100,000 to 150,000 child deaths per year in the country _ or between 270 and 400 daily.

He was speaking at a briefing by UNICEF of its annual report on "The State of the World's Children," released Tuesday. The under-5 mortality rate is a critical indicator of the well-being of children.

About 21 percent of child deaths in Myanmar are caused by acute respiratory infection, followed by pneumonia, diarrhea and septicemia.

The report rated Myanmar as having the 40th highest child mortality rate in the world, surpassed in Asia only by Afghanistan, which has the third-worst record after Sierra Leone and Angola.

It said, however, the death rate for young children in Myanmar had been reduced by 1.6 percent between 1990 and 2006.

In 2000, the World Health Organization ranked Myanmar's overall health care system as the world's second worst after war-ravaged Sierra Leone. Tens of thousands of people in Myanmar die each year from malaria, tuberculosis, AIDS, dysentery, diarrhea and other illnesses.

Most of Myanmar's health care is funded by international sources, with the government spending only about 3 percent on health annually, compared with 40 percent on the military, according to a report published this year by researchers from the University of California, Berkeley and Johns Hopkins University.

30 January 2008 – While precise estimates are difficult to come by, some 250,000 to 300,000 children globally are being recruited to fight in armed conflicts in violation of international law, a United Nations official said today, reporting mixed progress in efforts to tackle the problem.

Briefing reporters in New York on Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's latest report on children and armed conflict, his Special Representative on the issue, Radhika Coomaraswamy, voiced hope that the Security Council would take decisive action in response to its findings.

Children are being recruited by groups in Afghanistan, Burundi, Chad, the Central African Republic, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Myanmar, Nepal, the Philippines, Somalia, Sudan, Sri Lanka and Uganda, according to the report.

But there have been no recent cases of child recruitment in Côte d'Ivoire, where the parties are taking measures to identify and release affected children for rehabilitation. Sierra Leone and Liberia, which used to have a prevalence of child soldiers, are also no longer contained in the report's annexes, which Ms. Coomaraswamy said collectively amount to a "list of shame."

The report draws attention to disturbing trends exacerbating the problem of child conscription, including a close link between camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) and the recruitment of children. "Research shows recruitment goes down if the camps have good security," the Special Representative said.

She also voiced concern about cross-border movements with regard to child recruitment in places such as Sudan and Chad, as well as the detention of children in Burundi, Iraq and Afghanistan. In addition, she called attacks on schools, buildings and teachers a "serious new phenomenon" affecting Afghanistan, Iraq and Thailand.

The Special Rapporteur welcomed legal precedents for ending impunity, including the issue of arrest warrants by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for five senior members of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) operating in Uganda. The rebel group is notorious for recruiting and otherwise exploiting children.

Ms. Coomaraswamy said she will push for action in the Security Council, which is expected to discuss the report on children and armed conflict on 12 February. She said the Council should adopt "either a resolution or presidential statement" on the issue. Among other measures, she called for expanding the "list of shame" to include groups responsible for all manner of violations against children, or at least sexual violence.

UN News Service

It is hard not to stare. At the end of a dirt track, deep in the Thai jungle, a group of women sit in the shade, fingering the coils of brass which snake tightly around their unnaturally long, giraffe-like necks.

"It's incredible," says a Canadian tourist, snapping away with his camera, as the women pose - heads bobbing stiffly far above their shoulders - and try to sell him a few souvenirs from the doorsteps of their bamboo huts.

For years the prospect of visiting one of three "long-necked" Kayan villages in this remote corner of north-western Thailand, close to the Burmese border, has been a major lure for foreign tourists.

In return, the visitors have helped to provide a very modest income for the Kayan women and their families, who are all refugees from Burma.

Boycott?

But in a dramatic intervention, the United Nations is now talking of the need for a tourism boycott, amid allegations that the Kayan are being trapped in a "human zoo".

The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) says that for the past two years, the Thai authorities have refused to allow a group of 20 Kayan to leave the country, despite firm offers to resettle them in Finland and New Zealand.

The suspicion is that the women are being kept in Thailand because of the central role they play in the local tourism industry.

"We don't understand why these 20 are not allowed to start new lives," said the UNHCR's regional spokeswoman, Kitty McKinsey.

"The Thai authorities are treating them in a special way," she argued, pointing out that some 20,000 other Burmese refugees had recently been allowed to move to third countries.

"It's absolutely a human zoo," she said. "One solution is for tourists to stop going."

At the centre of this increasingly heated dispute is a quietly determined 23-year-old woman called Zember, who has proudly worn her tribe's traditional neck rings since she was five.

Zember and her family fled their home in the hills of eastern Burma 18 years ago. Her mother, Mu Pao, remembers government troops raiding their village and taking the men away by force to work as porters.

Like tens of thousands of people, the Kayan headed for the Thai border. But instead of being kept with the other refugees, the "long-necked" families were put in a separate compound a few yards from the official camp.

Since then, the ethnic conflicts inside Burma have raged on, and the Kayan community in Thailand has swelled to about 500.

"At least we're safe here and we can earn some money," said Mu Pao. Each tourist pays a 250 baht (US$8; £4) entrance fee.

Better deal

Other older women in the village agreed that, with little hope of ever returning to Burma, earning 1500 baht a month to be stared at by tourists was an acceptable deal.

But in 2005, a far better deal emerged. The UNHCR began offering permanent resettlement abroad to the many thousands of refugees still living in the area.

Many of the Kayan applied, and Zember and her family were quickly told they'd been accepted.

"I was so happy," said Zember. "They tell me a house is already waiting for us in New Zealand."

For the past two years, however, the Thai authorities have refused to sign the paperwork needed for Zember and 19 others to leave the country.

"Actually they aren't refugees," said Wachira Chotirosseranee, the deputy district officer and refugee camp commander, who insisted this was a purely bureaucratic matter with no connection to the local tourism industry.

"According to the regulations, you have to live inside the refugee camp. They don't meet the criteria."

The Thai authorities argue that the Kayan are economic migrants who earn a good living from the tourist trade and have chosen to settle outside the refugee camps.

"They absolutely are refugees," said the UNHCR's Kitty McKinsey. "It comes as a great surprise that the Thai authorities are criticising them for living outside the camps, when it was the Thai authorities who wanted them to live (outside)."

In frustration, and as an act of protest, Zember has now taken off her neck rings. "It felt uncomfortable at first," she said, rubbing her throat.

Over the years, the rings push the women's shoulders and ribs down, making their necks appear stretched.

"Because of my rings I have suffered many problems," she said. "I wear them not for tourists. I wear them for tradition... Now I feel like a prisoner."