Myanmar junta pressures civil servants to contribute food, money for soldiers

Officials and staff at the country’s military-controlled ministries are sending messages and donations to support junta troops after a series of defeats on the battlefield, according to civil service sources and junta-run media. Employees at various junta-run offices including the ministry of border affairs, ministry of electricity and energy, and department of rural development told Myanmar Now that officials at the directorial level had organised collections for the soldiers. The higher-ranking officials instructed them to make donations every time they received their salaries. A woman working in the civil service in Naypyitaw said that those who can afford it typically donate up to 10,000 kyat (US $3) at a time, but most employees only contribute a few hundred kyat. “Our salaries aren’t sufficient because of inflation,” she said. “We can’t afford to contribute much. I only gave 3,000.” Regime-run newspapers began publishing reports in the first week of August claiming that ministry employees have been preparing and donating food parcels for frontline soldiers. Still image from a video circulated by an anti-junta group showing Myanmar army soldiers who surrendered en masse in Lashio in July (MNDAA/Facebook) A report dated last Friday claimed the ministry of information had contributed food rations valued at 100 million kyat (US $31,000). Another newspaper reported the next day that more food donations had come from the police force; the administrations of Yangon Region, Ayeyarwady Region, and Shan State; and the ministries of cooperatives and rural development, natural resources and environmental conservation, legal affairs, and health. The donors sent letters of encouragement to the soldiers along with the food parcels, according to the junta-controlled outlets. Civil service employees confirmed that their ministries had received orders for each member of staff to write three messages of support and submit them to their directors’ offices, in consideration for the recent combat losses suffered by junta troops. “The focus is psychological warfare. With many casualties on the frontline, family members are very angry with the army. They are trying to get their subordinates to lend moral support,” a civil service employee said. Civilians in Myanmar generally use social media and mobile phones to communicate, but the army does not allow frontline soldiers are not allowed to carry mobile phones, forcing them to rely on physical mail delivery to receive almost all communications. In remarks given on Tuesday, junta chief Sen-Gen Min Aung Hlaing highlighted that staff at the regime’s ministries and “patriots” were sending messages of encouragement to the front lines. He added that soldiers, police, or militia members who were wounded, killed, or captured in the line of duty would be given honours, and that their families would receive support. It is unclear how long civil service employees will be instructed to make monetary contributions. Junta-controlled media began to publish reports about civilians’ and ministry staff’s donations and letters to soldiers earlier this year, but only reported donations of money, not food. The reports proliferated as anti-junta armed groups besieged and took over the northern Shan State capital of Lashio in early August. Armed resistance erupted throughout Myanmar after the military seized power in February 2021 and began shooting nonviolent protesters on the streets. Long-established ethnic armed groups have also carried out broad, coordinated offensives and continue to capture territory from the army, which is facing increasing difficulties in recruiting sufficient manpower despite reviving conscription for mandatory military service earlier this year.

Myanmar junta pressures civil servants to contribute food, money for soldiers

Junta troops on the front lines still receive almost all communications by physical mail delivery, as the army does not allow them to carry mobile phones

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