Burmese junta hits bottom, digs.

This is so low and so vile, part of me desperately wants to believe it's a hoax. But I bet it isn't: Brokers Supply Child Soldiers to Burma.

Burma's military government has been forcibly recruiting child soldiers through brokers who buy and sell boys to help the army deal with personnel shortages, which have been exacerbated by desertions and public aversion to its brutality, Human Rights Watch concludes in a detailed report being released today.

Private militias and ethnic insurgent groups in Burma have also been using child soldiers, though in far smaller numbers, according to the New York-based group's 135-page study, based on an investigation in Burma, China and Thailand.

"The brutality of Burma's military government goes beyond its violent crackdown on peaceful protesters," said Jo Becker, children's rights advocate for Human Rights Watch. "Military recruiters are literally buying and selling children to fill the ranks of the Burmese armed forces."

More at Blue Crab Boulevard, which notes the UN's all too typical reaction: a bold decision to study the issue.