Myanmar junta launches first basic military training for conscripts

The junta’s first military training for conscripts commenced last week in Taikkyi Township, Yangon Region. Photos of the opening ceremony held on March 29 at the No. 1 Basic Military Training School circulated online depicting junta supporters welcoming hundreds of youth with drums, floral garlands, and food. Residents of Yangon say that young people are being forced into military service through a lottery, summoned to training through letters issued by junta authorities and taken from their homes. “The authorities came to the house of a boy to summon him for military service, but he was no longer at home: he had fled,” a man from Mayangone Township said. “However, they tend to implement it by force. They will visit any house they wish in order to summon people.” Another young neighbour of the man was reportedly approached and asked to join the army, but he refused, citing health issues—he was said to have been taken away and conscripted anyway, as was another individual in the township on the evening of March 28. The second man was selected through the lottery, and forced to undergo a medical exam prior to his service. At the time of reporting, he had not been released. In Hlaing Township, those chosen in the military lottery were detained in the Bayinnaung interrogation centre under the pretext of undergoing medical examinations, which have been described by civilians as being carried out “just for show.” Residents of the area around the interrogation centre said that the recruits were seen being transported in 15 school buses, north, in the direction of the training school in Taikkyi on the morning of March 29. “There were a number of young people on board,” one local who saw the buses said. After the junta announced that military training would be provided for new recruits following the Thingyan water festival in mid-April, military and administrative officers in Ayeyarwady and Bago regions, as well as Naypyitaw, increased efforts to disseminate information on the National Service Law, or conscription law. The statute was originally drafted and enacted in 2010 under the former dictator Than Shwe, and requires men aged 18-35 and women aged 18-27 to serve for up to five years in the military. The current regime moved to reactivate the law in February, following a series of battlefield defeats against anti-junta guerrilla groups and ethnic armed organisations on frontlines nationwide. A channel appeared on the popular social media platform Telegram on March 29 called “The People’s Conscripted Men, Serving the Nation” that detailed the arrival of participants at the military training school in Taikkyi Township that day. It also showed young people similarly being brought to the Naypyitaw General Administration Department in Dekkinathiri Township, where former junta officials were seen leading a military training session. A news monitor told Myanmar Now that the channel is believed to be operated by a department within the military council. Some 5,000 new soldiers are soon expected to be recruited weekly, according to a junta spokesperson. Those who attempt to evade service if called upon can be sentenced to up to five years in prison. The publicly mandated National Unity Government has declared the junta’s conscription law invalid, as the military council is not Myanmar’s lawful administration.

Myanmar junta launches first basic military training for conscripts

Hundreds of young men, many of whom have been selected and summoned through a lottery, are brought to northern Yangon Region to be taught how to fight in the regime’s army

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