UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations on Friday welcomed the released of 75 children from Tatmadaw, the Myanmar armed forces, and called for the release of all remaining children in the military.
Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said Virginia Gamba, the special representative for children in armed conflict of UN chief, welcomed the release and called for freeing of the remaining children.
"She called it an important step in the protection of children in the country," Dujarric told reporters here at UN headquarters during a regular briefing. "She is encouraged by the positive step taken by the government following her visit to Myanmar in May."
"She strongly advocated for the release of all children as well as access to Rakhine, Shan and Kahn states and adoption of children rights law," the spokesman said. "She calls for the release of all remaining children from Tatmadaw ranks and for continued collaboration with the United Nations."
The United Nations says it does not have numbers of children still in Tatmadaw, nor for that matter worldwide, but Gamba told reporters here in June more than 21,000 "grave violations of children's rights" were verified to have occurred in 2017, up from 15,500 the previous year.
More than 10,000 children globally were killed last year, she said.
In 2017, Gamba said, 849 children had been released from the Myanmar military since 2012.
Northern Rakhine State, in Myanmar's northwest, has been racked by attacks from government military and civilian militias, sending more than 700,000 ethnic Muslim Rohingya fleeing into the Cox's Bazar District in neighboring Bangladesh's southernmost region, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said.
They joined an excess of 200,000 Rohingya who earlier were routed from Rakhine, the agency said. The refugees reported killing, raping and the torching of villages in response to an Aug. 25, 2017 deadly Rohingya rebel attack on Myanmar security posts.
The United Nations has been seeking unrestricted access to Rakhine to assess damage and interview remaining residents.
