The military regime plans to recruit men older than 35 as militia members across the country, according to junta spokesman Major General Zaw Min Tun.
In February, the regime introduced mandatory military service of two years for men aged 18-35 and women aged 18-27. Except for people with certain kinds of technical expertise like doctors and engineers, men older than 35 were exempt from the national conscription law.
However, having suffered consecutive military defeats in ethnic states, the regime has decided to force older men to help defend it.
To expedite the plan, the regime on Aug. 16 formed the Central Supervisory Committee for People’s Security and Anti-Terrorism, led by junta Border Affairs Minister Lieutenant General Tun Tun Naung. It will train and arm men older than 35 and use them to guard wards and villages.
Maj-Gen Zaw Min Tun told the Burmese Service of British broadcaster the BBC on Sunday that only capable men aged above 35 would be chosen for the scheme.
Zaw Min Tun said only that men older than 35 would be recruited to people’s security teams; he did not disclose a maximum age.
The committee is tasked with forming branch offices at regional, district and township levels to oversee “people’s security and anti-terrorism” groups at village and ward levels.
The committee will arrange the supply of food, arms and military training for the groups, according to the regime.
It will also oversee logistics support for military operations, safety behind front lines, rescue training, recruitment, and compensation for recruits killed or wounded in combat. The body is also tasked with recruiting technicians to operate high-tech weapons, who will be granted deferment or exemption from conscription.
Though the stated purpose of the groups is to provide security for their villages, wards and towns, it is possible that they will be sent to the front line, as the regime’s fighting forces are seriously depleted.
In 2022, the regime announced the formation of “people’s security groups comprising people who want to serve the interests of their region”. It said the people’s security system included the military, police, community security support groups and civilians.
Junta boss Min Aung Hlaing also discussed a “people’s security and defense system” when he met with political parties that registered with the regime’s election body in January. He urged political parties to join the process as part of his plan to hold an election next year.
The regime introduced mandatory military service in February amid heavy military defeats in northern Shan State and Rakhine State as well as on other fronts. It also activated the Reserve Force Law the same month allowing it to recall veterans to the front line. The formation of “people’s security and anti-terrorism” teams follows the junta’s loss of its Northeastern Command in northern Shan State to ethnic and resistance forces in an unprecedented military defeat.
The conscription law has already triggered a mass exodus of young Myanmar people to foreign countries or prompted them to join anti-regime groups.
Observers say the latest move aims to beef up security as part of the junta’s preparations for the 2025 poll. Min Aung Hlaing has said his regime will hold the election in stages next year. During his trip to Mandalay on Sunday, he said, “People must take part in the people’s security system so that stability can be restored to implement a multi-party democracy system.”
The junta’s poll plan has been widely dismissed as a pretext to extend rule by a military that deposed the elected government of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021.
