Myanmar’s young face abduction as they ignore junta’s call to duty

As its faltering conscription drive enters its second month, Myanmar’s military has begun using more coercive methods to find new recruits, according to sources. Instead of sending out letters summoning prospective draftees to recruitment centres, as required under a conscription law that went into effect for the first time this year, the military has been randomly arresting civilians and sending them to training centres, Myanmar Now has learned. In February, the junta announced that it would begin enforcing the People’s Military Service Law, enacted by a previous regime more than a decade ago. The move has prompted many young people of conscription age to flee or go into hiding. In response, the military has taken various measures, including a ban introduced last week that prohibits young men from going abroad for employment purposes. Meanwhile, local recruitment officers are resorting to drastic measures to meet their quotas, sources in many areas have reported. “They don’t even bring lists of eligible new recruits with them now. They just go around abducting anybody they see,” said an officer of the anti-regime Natmauk People’s Defence Team in Magway Region. According to one military observer, recruiters have become increasingly desperate to reach their targets—the total for each month is 5,000—because nobody believes what they say anymore. “They told new recruits they would be allowed to contact their families and that they would only be deployed around Yangon if that’s where they’re from. In actuality, many were sent to Shan State or Sagaing Region, all at the whims of the authorities,” said Zin Yaw, a former army captain who defected to the resistance. In Natmauk Township, only three of the 50 youths who were recently recruited in the town of Myothit were formally summoned; the rest were simply arrested, according to one man who managed to escape before meeting the same fate. “Some were picked up while they were crossing the road, while others were just working in their fields,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Among those arrested were some under the age of 18 and others as old as 48—well over the 18-35 draft age for men, he added. ‘Hardly any youths left’ Similar cases have also been reported in other parts of the country. In Bago Region, more than 40 youths were recently abducted in Paungde Township, including many who were not on the latest list of conscripts, according to the information officer for a People’s Defence Force battalion active in the area. In Bago’s Yedashe Township, a 30-year-old man was apprehended last month as he was travelling from his home village of Kyun Kone to the town of Yedashe, according to locals. Because the man is a widower, his five-year-old son has had to stay with neighbours while his father is forced to serve in the army, they added. In Sagaing Region, the strong presence of anti-regime forces has limited the military’s recruitment efforts to towns still under its control. In Ye-U, nearly 80 local youths from the town’s Aung Mingalar, Aung Chan Thar, Shwe Pyi Thar, and Aung San wards, as well as the nearby village of Ye-U Kone, are currently being held at a local high school, according to Htoo Khant Zaw of the People’s Comrade Force, a local resistance group. A photo shared on pro-junta Telegram channels shows new recruits as they prepare to join Myanmar’s military “They started arresting young men day and night in April,” he said, adding that many of those now in custody are relatives of men who had fled the town to avoid being drafted in the first batch. According to Htoo Khant Zaw, the military’s plan is to send the forcibly recruited men to Monywa, where its Northwestern Regional Military Command is headquartered, once they have rounded up a total of 100. In the northern part of Sagaing, the military began detaining young men as early as late March, when it arrested 21 in Layshi Township. Although they were later released after negotiations with local civil society groups, the men continue to face pressure to enlist, according to a local man with ties to the resistance. “The authorities said that everyone within the age range must fill out the recruitment forms and would be recruited sooner or later—that it was a must and there was no way out of it,” the man said. Hundreds of young men have since fled to the Indian border to avoid being drafted, he added. “We have hardly any youths left in town.” An uphill battle According to a recent report by Burma Affairs and Conflict Study, a group that monitors war crimes in Myanmar, at least 100,000 young men have so far left the country to dodge the junta’s conscription drive. The report also found that the majority of those who have been recruited came from Yangon, Ayeyarwady, and Mandalay regions, as well as the Naypyitaw Union Territory. Significant numbers have also come from parts of Magway, Bago and Sagaing regions where the regime still holds some territory. For those unable to leave the country, fleeing to liberated areas to join the resistance has also been a popular alternative to being drafted, according to the National Unity Government (NUG). During a press conference held last month to mark the third anniversary of its founding as Myanmar’s publicly mandated government, NUG spokesperson Nay Phone Latt said that nearly 15,000 young people had contacted its Telegram channel to seek advice on how to avoid being conscripted. A photo shared on pro-junta Telegram channels shows a ceremony being held to welcome new recruits into the Myanmar military All of this has made the job of meeting the junta’s insatiable demand for cannon fodder all the more difficult, according to one Naypyitaw-based administrator involved in the recruitment effort. “We managed to send off the first batch, but we don’t even have a list of names for the second batch. At this point, we’re just telling recruiters to grab anyone they see outside at night,” he said, speaking to Myanmar Now on condition of anonymity. “It’s going to be even tougher with future batches,” he added. He said that in one ward, 13 of the 30 designated conscripts had simply disappeared, while 10 others responded to their summonses by saying they were working elsewhere. Although the junta estimates that there are a total of 14 million eligible conscripts in the country, it is unlikely that it will be able to recruit more than a tiny fraction of that number under the current circumstances. Instead, the regime will continue to face an uphill battle to find new soldiers to replace the thousands who have already been killed or injured during three years of war, or who have deserted or defected amid growing doubts about the junta’s future.

Myanmar’s young face abduction as they ignore junta’s call to duty

Desperate to meet their quotas, recruiters are using arbitrary arrests to help replenish the military’s rapidly diminishing ranks

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