Myanmar’s junta continues to list conscription-age women despite its denials that it is planning to draft females for military service.
A Thingangyun Township resident in Yangon told The Irrawaddy: “A junta official visited our home last Friday and said my niece-in-law was listed for women’s conscription.”
The family said they are preparing to pay to have her name removed from the list.
On Wednesday, the regime told its media that it was not preparing to draft women.
General Administration Department and police sources said the junta is compiling lists of conscription-age women and notifying their families.
The sources said ward and village administrators will use a lottery system to select at least two female conscripts from each ward and village.
A 26-year-old woman’s family in Thanlyinn Township, Yangon, was contacted by their ward administrator on Monday. She works at an international school in Bahan Township.
“The administrator phoned my mother,” she said. “I don’t know what to do. My school principal will appeal for an exemption because I work in the education sector.”
The junta dusted off the Conscription Law in February last year, requiring men aged 18-35 and unmarried women 18-27 to serve in the military for a minimum of two years. The regime has since trained nine batches of male conscripts, totaling at least 45,000 recruits.
The regime stated last year that each intake would comprise approximately 5,000 men.
Last year it said it would begin conscripting unmarried women aged 18 to 27 with the fifth male intake.
The compiling of female lists coincided with the junta’s updating of its Conscription Law on January 23.
Data collection began in Yangon, including in Hlaing Tharyar Township, Myanmar’s largest industrial zone, where hundreds of thousands of women work in factories.
Residents in Myanaung and Kyangin townships, Ayeyarwady Region, also reported data collection in rural areas.
Ma Chit, 32, of Myanaung, said she was concerned for her younger sister and brother, who are both eligible for conscription.
“I am too worried about them to sleep,” Ma Chit said. “I will help them to leave when I am settled abroad.”