The Myanmar junta is in the process of drafting hundreds of new members to serve in the military this month, forming the second batch of new soldiers to be forcibly signed up under the newly activated conscription law, according to the junta’s “recruitment team”, residents of affected areas, and local resistance forces.
An official from the junta’s Yangon Region recruitment team told The Irrawaddy on Thursday that they had sent almost 300 new conscripts to the Bayint Naung Investigation and Military Guesthouse as a prior step to undergoing military training.
“We are already recruiting for the second batch in Yangon Region. There are 294 people in total [so far]. We are trying to reach 300 people,” he added.
The military regime has created recruitment teams in all seven of Myanmar’s regions and three of its seven ethnic states to round up new members to serve in the military after the junta enforced the national conscription law on Feb. 10.
The activation of the long-dormant law comes at a time when the military regime is facing a serious personnel shortage as it continues its multi-front war against revolutionary groups across the country.
According to Burma Affairs and Conflict Study (BACS), a body monitoring junta war crimes, the first batch of 5,000 conscripts was sent to over 150 military centers across the country starting March 27.
Numerous cases of abduction of civilians from their homes were reported when the regime rounded up recruits for the first batch.
The enforcement of the law and the reports of forced recruitment have prompted many young people who can afford it to go abroad in order to evade the draft.
For the second batch, the regime started rounding up new members in Bago Region early this month, according to a local resistance force.
An information officer from the region’s Pyay District People Defense Force said the military regime had already conscripted at least 30 young men each from six out of 14 townships in western Bago.
On the morning of May 8, 12 military trucks left Pyay with almost 300 new conscripts, apparently headed for Yangon, he said. He estimated there were 20 to 25 people in each vehicle.
He added that some village administrators had negotiated a deal with military officers not to conduct conscription in their villages, in exchange for paying 100,000 kyats (US$47) per month per household with male family members and 50,000 kyats per household without male family members.
A resident of the region’s Gyobingauk town said the new conscripts were sent to Infantry Battalion 80 in Bago Region’s Inn Ma town before being transferred to Taundwingyi in Magwe Region for training. He said the total number of people from town who were conscripted was unknown.
The Irrawaddy contacted the Central Recruitment Team in Naypyitaw and requested detailed information about the second batch recruitment process across the country on Thursday. An officer on duty referred The Irrawaddy to a Telegram channel named People’s Military Service Volunteers Group.
After The Irrawaddy’s phone call to the officer, the team posted various pictures through its channel showing second-batch conscripts from Yangon, Bago, Sagaing and Tanintharyi regions.
Based on the pictures, The Irrawaddy estimates there may be 200-300 people in each region being recruited for the second batch.
While recruitment centers have been set up in all seven of Myanmar’s regions, Mon, Shan and Rakhine are the only states to have them. In the remaining four states—Kachin, Karenni (Kayah), Karen and Chin—regime troops have suffered a series of military defeats and most of the territory is controlled by ethnic armed groups.
So far, military officials have concentrated their conscription efforts in Yangon, Mandalay, Ayeyarwady and Naypyitaw regions as well as southern Shan State, rather than in states and regions where serious fighting is going on, according to BACS.
