"Teenagers continue to serve in both the state military and armed groups, despite new approach by country?s leaders...Myat Win, a 19-year-old former child soldier, says he was forcibly conscripted into the Myanmar military, taken off a street by a pair of policemen at the tender age of 15 and sent to an army traning centre under deceitful promises, and without the knowledge of his family. According to numerous reports by human rights organisations, many other children of Myanmar have shared Myat Win?s fate, while many more may have lost either their futures or their lives upon being forcibly conscripted into the state armed forces. Additionally, an unknown number of child soldiers continue to serve in non-state armed groups, thereby perpetuating the vicious cycle of violence. IN VIDEO Watch Myanmar?s former child soldiers tell their own stories Those underage combatants who manage to escape the clutches of their army commanders often cross through the porous border to Thailand. They seek refuge in "safe houses", faced with little choice between being caught by Thai authorities and sent back to succumb to the will of their troop leaders, or living in secrecy without an identity or recourse..."