Wa occupiers’ recruitment practices alarm locals in northern Shan State township

Civilian residents of Tangyan Township in northern Shan State have expressed concern about recruitment and other policies implemented in the area by Myanmar’s largest ethnic armed group, the United Wa State Army (UWSA). UWSA forces have been occupying the township, which was formerly under the Myanmar military’s control, since early July, when they entered and set up bases in Tangyan in what they said was a measure to preserve “peace” in the region. Soon after arriving in Tangyan, the UWSA installed its own administrative apparatus and began registering the names of young male residents for military service, local sources said. According to one Tangyan Township resident in his 20s, teams of armed UWSA members including a lieutenant have been collecting names by going from house to house in the township’s villages, then selecting recruits by lottery. “They tell younger people that they can return home after completing three months of military training and that they will be called back when needed,” he said. Some families, however, worry that the UWSA will not allow their male relatives to return home after the training period. The young township resident said that the UWSA had been taking the names of children as young as six on their household registration visit, claiming that they would use the information to provide education. “In my area’s larger villages with over 20 households, they collected the names of around 15 people per village, sometimes more. In villages with many children, they asked about the children too, and said they would take more than ten children to schools. They even took six- and seven-year-old children,” the local man continued. The UWSA forces reportedly said they would provide free education to the children at Christian churches and schools in Tangyan’s urban centre, and that they could return home after completing their education, according to the Tangyan resident, adding that the UWSA assured parents they would be allowed to visit their children anytime. Locals said the UWSA had registered the names of more than 130 residents from nine villages in the township. The number of children’s names the UWSA members took was unknown. A Tangyan resident in his 30s said the UWSA had taken one man from his village for military service as well as three children, saying the children would go to a school in the town. The UWSA members also said that they were enlisting members of the Tangyan Township-based Mangpang People’s Militia into their command structure and planned to assign them local security duties. UWSA spokespersons denied the claims about military recruitment in Tangyan. Sam Bein, the spokesperson for Brigade 171 of the UWSA, said they only accept people volunteering to serve as members of their group. “If people from villages come and want to attend training, they can. That’s all there is. We don’t specifically recruit soldiers,” said Sam Bein. Nyi Rang, UWSA’s external relations officer, said the Wa armed group is only organising people over 18 for community security, and is providing free education to children. “We are not summoning people for military service in the Tangyan area. We are only organising for security in their own communities,” Nyi Rang said. “Regarding children attending school, everything is provided free with parental consent. Parents can visit their children weekly or monthly if they wish, and they do visit,” he added. Before the UWSA’s occupation of Tangyan, most of the fighters operating in the town were part of the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), a member of the Brotherhood Alliance, which carried out a sweeping offensive against the military in northern Shan State starting least year. The TNLA withdrew when the UWSA forces entered the town. Tangyan Township residents said it was unjust for the UWSA to subject them to military recruitment after many villagers had already served in the TNLA. The young man who spoke with Myanmar Now about UWSA recruitment in his village said the Wa fighting force was also controlling the supply of staples like rice and cooking oil to the township’s villages, and that some villagers had left their homes due to shortages of food. “In the highland areas, if you grow corn, you can’t sell it here or there; we’re caught in the middle. We don’t know how to make a living. And as you know, upland farming requires a lot of manpower,” the man said. “Now with them taking both sons and fathers, some households will be left with just the mother and no idea how to survive,” he added. The UWSA claims to be maintaining regional peace, the man argued, and should not want local people to face this kind of hardship. During the Operation 1027 offensive, the Brotherhood Alliance—a tripartite grouping of ethnic armed organisations including the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army and Arakan Army as well as the TNLA—took control of most of northern Shan State’s townships from Myanmar’s military regime. As the offensive resumed in June of this year after a five-month ceasefire and the northern Shan State capital of Lashio came under attack, the UWSA deployed forces to Tangyan, located on the boundary between northern and southern Shan State, allegedly following negotiations with the military junta. During the previous phase of Operation 1027 in 2023, the Brotherhood Alliance’s forces peacefully handed over control of the towns of Hopang and Panlon, which they had previously taken over, to the UWSA without firing a shot. Brotherhood Alliance forces now control nearly all the townships in northern Shan State. The only townships remaining in the military regime’s hands are Muse on the Chinese border and Tangyan and Mongyai, which are adjacent to the UWSA’s de facto capital of Pangkham. However, because of the UWSA’s occupation of Tangyan, the junta exercises little practical influence there. After the Brotherhood Alliance took over the northern Shan State capital in August, the junta relocated its Northeastern Regional Military Command headquarters—which had been located in Lashio—to Mongyai Township.

Wa occupiers’ recruitment practices alarm locals in northern Shan State township

Some civilians, who fear the United Wa State Army intends to conscript recruits for indefinite periods of service, also said they were uneasy about the armed group’s alleged policy of taking children from their home villages to attend schools in the nearest town

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