The Shan State Progress Party (SSPP) is forcibly recruiting ethnic Shan and Lisu villagers in Nawnghkio Township, northern Shan State, according to residents.
Headquartered at Wanhai in Kyethi Township, the rebel group boasts eight brigades and over 30 battalions in Mong Hsu, Kyethi, Kyaukme, Hsipaw, Mongyai, Tangyan, Namtu, Namkham, Momauk, Panglong and Lawksawk townships.
Forced recruitment reportedly began this month when around 10 armed SSPP members led by a company commander seized random villagers, releasing them in exchange for over-18s.
An Inma villager told The Irrawaddy: “They suddenly appear and seize people, especially in the evening, and ask households to exchange detainees for young men. They have lists. If a family includes two sons, it has to give one. They would seize anyone in a village and only release them when the young men arrive.”
If a village cannot supply recruits, around 2 million kyats must be paid per month to the SSPP and ransoms can be paid to release the detainees, residents said.
Fifteen Nawnghkio villages have reportedly faced forced SSPP recruitment.
An activist said: “It happens in villages beside the Pyin Oo Lwin-Mogoke road and Nawnghkio road and Shan villages on the border of Mogoke and Madaya townships.”
One Thabyay Doe villager said: “They take the elderly, women and children. The area is unstable. There is no one to complain to.”
Junta troops and the Brotherhood Alliance have been fighting in Nawnghkio Township and many residents have fled their homes amid junta artillery strikes.
The SSPP mainly asks for males. It demands at least four men from each village and that families with more than one son give at least one.
The Inma villager said: “Some families include three or four children. But many work abroad as life becomes increasingly difficult. Only teenagers are left so villagers struggle to supply recruits.”
Villagers have reported the issue to the Ta’ang National Liberation Army and People’s Defense Forces but they are busy fighting the junta, he said.
“I am Shan and I love my people. But their recruitment is abduction and it is not good,” he added.
The SSPP and Shan human rights organizations were unable to comment.
MNDAA recruitment
The Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) of the Brotherhood Alliance has reportedly told males aged 16 to 50 in occupied towns to enlist or have all their property confiscated.
A video on social media shows an MNDAA member telling civilians sheltering at a Pansai monastery that families with two sons or three children of either gender must enlist one. Families with five children must supply two.
The MNDAA said it would confiscate abandoned homes in Pansai and, if residents fail to produce their household registration certificates, their homes will be seized.
The Brotherhood Alliance continues to fight the junta in Muse Township on the Chinese border. Repeated regime airstrikes and shelling mean residents have not returned to their homes.
The MNDAA conscripted novices at a monastery in Mone Koe on November 27 and seized seven men aged 18 to 27 that fled Laukkai and destroyed their citizenship ID cards, according to the Shan Herald News Agency.
MNDAA spokesman Li Jiawen told the media that the group was following its recruitment policy.
