Myanmar junta to begin conscription drive in April: spokesperson

Myanmar’s military regime will begin conscripting new troops soon after the end of the country’s traditional New Year’s celebrations in April, the junta’s spokesperson said on Tuesday. Speaking to the BBC’s Burmese-language service, Zaw Min Tun said that recently announced plans to start enforcing the country’s more than decade-old conscription law would be implemented in the coming months. “We are gearing up to kickstart recruitment after the end of the Thingyan holidays in April,” he told the BBC, referring to the annual water festival held to mark the Burmese New Year, which this year will be held from April 13 to 16. Under the conscription law, which was enacted by a previous regime in 2010, all men aged 18 to 35 and all women aged 18 to 27 are required to perform up to two years of military service. For “specialists” such as doctors and engineers, the upper age limit is 45, and the term of service is three years. Since announcing the move last Saturday, the regime has sought to play down the impact of the decision, while also making it clear that it will not allow any dissent on the matter. On Wednesday, junta mouthpiece the Global New Light of Myanmar said that the People’s Military Service Law was enacted to safeguard the “Three Main National Causes”: “non-disintegration of the Union, non-disintegration of national solidarity, and perpetuation of the sovereignty.” It is the duty of “every citizen to undergo military training” to serve these causes, it added. However, in his interview with the BBC, Zaw Min Tun said that the regime would only be recruiting about 5,000 soldiers at a time, out of the 13 million people that he said were eligible for conscription. In total, only around 10 percent of these can expect to be called up, he added. With Myanmar’s military currently fighting on multiple fronts throughout the country, he also sought to reassure future conscripts that they wouldn’t be sent straight into battle. “It’s not as though you will have to grab a gun and start fighting on the battlefield right away. You will first learn how to serve in the military as a professional soldier to defend the country,” he said, adding that some conscripts will have non-combat roles in areas such as cyber-security. In addition to forcibly recruiting new troops, the junta will also start using a reservist law, also enacted in 2010, to bring former military personnel, including those who have retired within the past five years, back into active duty, state media reported on Wednesday. Those who are summoned must report for duty or face a prison sentence of up to three years, the report added. Myanmar’s military has suffered unprecedented losses since seizing power more than three years ago, with thousands of soldiers being killed or wounded in battle and many others surrendering en masse in the face of intense pressure from an array of armed groups opposed to its rule. While tens of thousands of young people have joined the anti-regime resistance movement since the coup, the junta’s own recruitment efforts have failed to keep pace with losses, according to military sources. Now that the military is set to begin forcibly recruiting new troops, many young people say they will either leave the country or join the resistance rather than fight on the side of the regime. Meanwhile, there have also been unconfirmed reports of civilians being taken into custody in a number of towns and cities around Myanmar, including Yangon, possibly to be pressed into military service. Myanmar’s military has in the past been accused of forcibly recruiting civilians, including minors, after arresting them for minor offenses.

Myanmar junta to begin conscription drive in April: spokesperson

The regime has sought to play down the impact of its decision to start forcibly recruiting new troops

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