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Child-Soldiering: A Nuanced View Through the Eyes of a Gorkha Youth in Kachin State, Myanmar

Child-Soldiering: A Nuanced View Through the Eyes of a Gorkha Youth in Kachin State, Myanmar Myanmar has more child soldiers than any other country but the literature on this subject disregards their experiences. I analyse a first-hand account of child-soldiering in 2014 in the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), a non-state armed group in Kachin State, to understand motivations for associating with the armed group as well as the lived experience of being a child soldier. I critique claims made in the literature for their failure to appreciate agency and volition and positive experiences in accounts of passivity, innocence, and suffering. Most pertinently, the case study reveals ethnic heterogeneity and ethnicisation, challenging the portrayal of the KIA as an ethnic militia exclusively advocating for Kachin people, and bringing into question politicised ethnicity as the primary lens through which conflict in Myanmar is conventionally viewed. The limitations of Western child rights-based approaches in leveraging culturally sensitive analyses are also considered. This nuanced view of child-soldiering is a corrective to top-down political approaches to deciphering Myanmar’s conflict. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology Taylor & Francis

Child-Soldiering: A Nuanced View Through the Eyes of a Gorkha Youth in Kachin State, Myanmar

Davey, Gareth
The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology , Volume 24 (1): 18 – Jan 1, 2023
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18 pages

Child-Soldiering: A Nuanced View Through the Eyes of a Gorkha Youth in Kachin State, Myanmar

Abstract

Myanmar has more child soldiers than any other country but the literature on this subject disregards their experiences. I analyse a first-hand account of child-soldiering in 2014 in the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), a non-state armed group in Kachin State, to understand motivations for associating with the armed group as well as the lived experience of being a child soldier. I critique claims made in the literature for their failure to appreciate agency and volition and positive...
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Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Copyright
© 2022 The Australian National University
ISSN
1740-9314
eISSN
1444-2213
DOI
10.1080/14442213.2022.2110150
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Myanmar has more child soldiers than any other country but the literature on this subject disregards their experiences. I analyse a first-hand account of child-soldiering in 2014 in the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), a non-state armed group in Kachin State, to understand motivations for associating with the armed group as well as the lived experience of being a child soldier. I critique claims made in the literature for their failure to appreciate agency and volition and positive experiences in accounts of passivity, innocence, and suffering. Most pertinently, the case study reveals ethnic heterogeneity and ethnicisation, challenging the portrayal of the KIA as an ethnic militia exclusively advocating for Kachin people, and bringing into question politicised ethnicity as the primary lens through which conflict in Myanmar is conventionally viewed. The limitations of Western child rights-based approaches in leveraging culturally sensitive analyses are also considered. This nuanced view of child-soldiering is a corrective to top-down political approaches to deciphering Myanmar’s conflict.

Journal

The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology – Taylor & Francis

Published: Jan 1, 2023

Keywords: Child Soldier; Gorkha; Kachin; Kachin Independence Army; Myanmar

References

  • Revisiting the Wages of Burman-Ness: Contradictions of Privilege in Myanmar
  • On Violence, the Everyday, and Social Reproduction: Agnes and Myanmar’s Transition
  • Anthropological Communities of Interpretation for Burma: An Overview
  • Tactical Dissonance: Insurgent Autonomy on the Myanmar-China Border
  • ‘Building Kachin’: Youth and Everyday Action in One of Myanmar's Ethnic States
  • Misanthropy Without Borders: The International Child Rights Regime
  • Thinking Through Heterogeneity: An Anthropological Look At Contemporary Myanmar
  • Victimcy, Girlfriending, Soldiering: Tactic Agency in a Young Woman’s Social Navigation of the Liberian War Zone