US embassy cable - 03RANGOON1359

UNCLAS RANGOON 001359 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE ALSO FOR EAP/BCLTV 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, BM, Human Rights 
SUBJECT: VIEW FROM A RANGOON STREET KIDS SHELTER 
 
 
1.  SUMMARY: On October 21 the director of an NGO-funded 
Rangoon street kids drop-in shelter reported an absence of 
GOB impressment for portering and forced enlistment of street 
children compared to previous years.  The shelter director 
believes the U.S. sanctions have increased local unemployment 
as Rangoon-area companies are unable to pay for imported raw 
materials and must layoff workers.  However, she claimed the 
closing of garment factories has not resulted in an increase 
of street kids. END SUMMARY. 
 
REACHING OUT TO STREET ORPHANS 
------------------------------ 
 
2.  On October 21 visiting EAP/BCLTV Director and Poloff 
toured an NGO-funded street kids drop-in shelter in Rangoon. 
World Vision established the shelter in 1997, with the 
mission to protect street children from abuse and educate 
them on health and hygiene.  The center provides a place to 
stay for up to three years for about 10 girls and 40 boys who 
are street orphans or whose parent(s) are living on the 
streets themselves.  The shelter's outreach program provides 
much needed nutritional and medical care to children 
suffering from malnutrition and other diseases associated 
with poverty. Through word-of-mouth, the shelter attracts a 
small fraction of the estimated thousands of children living 
on the streets of Rangoon.  Freedom to come and go during the 
day is very appealing and allows some kids to find light work 
in the nearby market to earn pocket money.  One of the 
Center's goals is to informally educate the street kids, who 
have never attended state schools, by giving them an 
equivalent to the GOB's minimum standard of a fourth-level 
education. 
 
NO MORE FORCED PORTERING? 
------------------------- 
 
3.  The Shelter director and three teenage residents reported 
that they haven't heard of any cases in the past two years in 
which street kids were press ganged in Rangoon for military 
portering duties.  Forced military recruiting has taken a 
different turn as well.  The Army recruiters still corral 
underage teens to get them to join the military, but now 
those who don't want to join are released.  Recently, two 
underage teens from the shelter were taken to join the army, 
but one said "no thanks" and was allowed to return to the 
shelter.  The other, described as a difficult youth, was not 
let go. 
 
UNEMPLOYMENT UP 
--------------- 
 
4.  The shelter director claimed that sanctions have 
increased local area unemployment because factories could not 
pay for needed import materials and were forced to layoff 
workers.   However, there have not been any children of 
garment factory workers turning up at the shelter. 
 
5.  COMMENT:  This is the first report received of a 
cessation in street children being forced into military 
portering.  It is also the first time post has heard that 
army "recruiters" are giving underage teens the option to say 
"no" to a recruitment pitch. 
 
6. (U) This message was cleared by EAP/BCLTV Director Judith 
Strotz. 
McMullen