Myanmar junta enforces conscription among displaced Rohingya, detains families of those escaping draft law

Junta officials are retaliating against families of young Rohingya people who fled the Kyauktalone displaced persons’ camp in Rakhine State last week to escape conscription, according to sources within the camp. On February 21, soldiers and junta-appointed administrators visited the Kyauktalone internally displaced persons’ (IDP) camp, a settlement with more than 1,000 inhabitants just over 3 miles south of Kyaukphyu, and met with the camp elders and management near the entrance. Over the following two days, the junta administrators made more visits to the camp and announced plans to enforce a conscription law requiring all eligible people between 18 and 35 to serve in the armed forces, Kyauktalone camp elders and residents told Myanmar Now. "We asked the administrators whether only the people from our camp in Kyaukphyu will be summoned. There are people in the villages and urban wards, too, and we told them they should summon them the same way,” said a woman in her 50s staying in the camp. "They answered that they don't trust those Rakhine people because those people would stab them in the back,” she said. “They said the people in this camp are like their family, like brothers and sisters,” she continued, referring to the Kyauktalone camp’s Rohingya ethnic majority. “They were trying to flatter us.” Rohingya and police at the Thet Kae Pyin displaced persons’ camp near Sittwe in 2018 (Photo – EPA) The officer who referred to Rohingya people in the Kyauktalone IDP camp as “brothers and sisters”, according to the camp resident, was Lt.-Col. Myo Swe Latt, the commander of Light Infantry Battalion 34. The administrator of Kyaukphyu Township, Myo Min Tun, and Capt. Han Thu Aung of the Military Security Affairs agency were also among the junta officials who visited the camp. The junta officials said new recruits would undergo two weeks of basic military training. Myo Swe Latt told the camp management and elders that there would be two days of military training in the camp, followed by further practical training in a military-controlled area with food and lodging expenses covered. After the two weeks of training, the Rohingya recruits would not be required to go into combat against anti-junta armed groups but merely join soldiers on routine patrols, the battalion commander said. The proposed training seemed like a scheme to pit Rohingya people and the state’s ethnically Rakhine majority against each other, one Muslim camp resident in his 70s said. "They will use this to sow division between us and the Arakanese people,” the man said, using an alternative name for the Rakhine ethnic group. “Even if the Rohingya are not compelled to go into battle, they will try to leverage us by saying, ‘We have the kalar behind us,’” he added. The word ‘kalar’ is an anti-Muslim slur used in Myanmar. There are nearly 400 households in the Kyauktalone camp, which has at least 160 residents within the 18-to-35 age range affected by the conscription law. Many inhabitants of the Kyauktalone camp are former residents of Kyaukphyu’s urban wards—such as Ah Yar Shi, Paik Thei, Pyin Hpyu Maw, and Than Pan Chaung—who first sought refuge in encampments outside of Kyaukphyu in 2012, when a wave of anti-Muslim riots forced them from their homes. At least 21 Rohingya people of eligible age, including 16 men and five women, have fled the camp since last week because they were unwilling to be forced into service by the junta. When Myo Min Tun and other junta officials visited the camp again on Sunday to record the names and information of those who had fled, they were irate and ordered the draft evaders’ families to leave the camp within two days. "They said that they had no reason to show us any sympathy, and that they didn’t want to see our faces starting on Tuesday. They told us that if we didn’t leave, they would drive us away like dogs,” said a woman whom the officials had ordered to leave. The woman, who was in her 60s, has two sons-in-law, a daughter, and a grandson who had fled the Kyauktalone camp. She said she had no choice but to remain there. "Now they’re evicting but we have nowhere to go, so I suppose all we can do is apologize for not leaving," the woman said. Two days after issuing the eviction order, authorities raided the camp, detaining at least eight people related to the residents who had run away. According to a source connected to security officials in Rakhine State, the detainees include a paralysed man in his 60s, two mothers of people who fled, a man of unknown age, and four children including infants. “Soldiers, police, and members of the Military Security Affairs agency all came in a combined force to arrest them,” the source said. Arriving in the camp on Tuesday morning, the junta officials rounded up the fugitive conscripts’ family members in a military vehicle and took them to the Kyaukphyu Township police station. The detainees are still in custody as of Wednesday morning. Some family members of camp residents who evaded conscription had also fled before Tuesday because of the junta officials’ threats. According to Arakan Princess Media, a news outlet associated with the Arakan Army (AA), junta authorities also detained more than 100 young people subject to conscription on Tuesday, holding them in a ration warehouse inside the IDP camp. Myanmar Now is still attempting to reach camp residents for more detailed information on the incident. Unconfirmed reports suggested that the Rohingya people who fled the camp to evade conscription are currently under the protection of the AA. However, when Myanmar Now attempted to contact AA spokesperson Khaing Thukha in writing for more information, there was no response. Since the military council announced on February 10 that it planned to enforce the decade-old conscription law, it has been a source of distress and anxiety for young people subject to the compulsory service requirement as well as their families. Junta spokesperson Major General Zaw Min Tun said the military would start to implement the conscription policy by enlisting the first batch of 5,000 recruits in April of this year. However, there are rumours circulating among civilians that soldiers have already started the forced recruitment in some parts of Myanmar by detaining young people on the streets with the intent to press them into service. According to local media outlets and members of the Muslim minority community in Rakhine State, junta officials started targeting Rohingya people for conscription this month, already detaining more than a hundred in Sittwe and Buthidaung townships. Nay San Lwin, co-founder of the Free Rohingya Coalition, told Myanmar Now that more than 100 Rohingya youths had been arrested by the army on February 19 and 20 in Tat Min Chaung, Pu Zun Chaung, Kyauk Hpyu Taung and Nga Kyin Tauk villages in Buthidaung township. “One of their motives is to foment ethnic conflict, and the other is to deploy forced recruits to the frontlines to use them as human shields,” Nay San Lwin said. “The training they receive will only last two weeks, which will make it impossible for them to fight effectively.” Myanmar Now has not been able to verify these claims about forcible mass enlistment independently, as the military has disabled communications in some parts of Rakhine State amid ongoing clashes with the AA. The Myanmar military is increasingly desperate for manpower due to escalating hostilities with the AA and other anti-junta forces since late last year. Since November, the AA has been steadily gaining ground against junta forces in Rakhine State and the neighbouring Paletwa Township, Chin State—having seized control of the towns of Kyauktaw, Mrauk-U, Minbya, Paletwa, Pauktaw, Myebon, and Taungpyo—and is currently positioned to advance towards the state capital, Sittwe.

Myanmar junta enforces conscription among displaced Rohingya, detains families of those escaping draft law

After at least 21 Rohingya people of eligible age fled an IDP camp in Rakhine State to escape forced military service, junta officials have taken at least eight of their family members—including young children—into custody

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