This photo shows a child member of a rebel group in Myanmar
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on February 10, 2021 at 08:30
- 2 min read
- By AFP Philippines
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The photo was published on Twitter here on December 8, 2020, alongside an image from the anime series Attack on Titan.
“In the Philippines, NPAs are still recruiting children from indigenous families to fight and die for an illusioned cause,” the post reads, comparing alleged child soldiers in the country to characters from the anime series.
“NPA” refers to the New People’s Army, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines. The group has been waging an insurgency for decades to overthrow what the rebels call a capitalist system that has created one of Asia's biggest rich-poor divides. AFP reported on the group here.
The photo was shared alongside a similar claim on Twitter here; on Facebook here and here; and on YouTube here. It was also published by Philippine broadsheet Daily Tribune in a 2019 report here about NPA child soldiers.
The claim, however, is false.
A reverse image search on TinEye, followed by keyword searches on Google, found that the photo was published in this January 31, 2000 report by Reuters news agency about child soldiers in Myanmar.
The Reuters photo is captioned: “Samboo, a 12-year-old soldier in the Karen rebel army, poses with his rifle in a jungle camp on the border with Thailand January 31, on the 51st anniversary of Karen revolution day.”
Below is a screenshot comparison of the photo in the misleading posts (L) and the Reuters photo (R):
The same child member of the Karen rebel group was also photographed here from a slightly different angle by AFP photographer Pornchai Kittiwongsakul.
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