The Myanmar military has started drafting women in some parts of Ayeyarwady and Bago regions as part of the junta’s third round of forced conscription, according to local residents.
Residents of Maubin Township, Ayeyarwady Region said administrators in some wards and villages are now selecting women from name lists, based on a draw system. Those who are selected are being forced to pay bribes to the administrators or find others to serve in their place if they wish to avoid military service, they said.
“The selection of women under a draw system began in some wards and villages on May 25 in our township. That’s why I moved to Yangon—to avoid suddenly being drafted,” said a 29-year-old woman. Though she is above 27—the cutoff age for women under the junta’s general conscription guidelines—she is still eligible to be drafted because she is considered to have special expertise, being the holder of an engineering degree from Maubin Technological University.
The junta’s military is also hurriedly building more barracks at the No. 6 Basic Military Training School in Pathein, the capital of Ayeyarwady Region, according to Ko Sitt Yan Shin, the leader of Pathein Special Task Force (PSTF), a popular resistance group based in the region that is fighting the junta’s military.
He said that according to informants in the junta military, the regime has decided to include female “recruits” in the third batch of conscripts to be sent for basic training—hence the new barracks, which will be needed to accommodate the women.
“We have also been receiving reports that the administrators in some villages are preparing name lists including women, which is a warning sign for the women of Myanmar,” said Ko Sitt Yan Shin.
In Okpho Township in western Bago Region, seven women were reportedly detained on the evening of May 13 in order to be conscripted. One of them was later released but the other six were sent to Taungoo to undergo basic military training, according to a local media report.
The junta activated the long-dormant People’s Military Service Law on Feb. 10 and has been moving quickly to enforce it.
On May 14, training of the second batch of military conscripts began at junta regional commands including those in Yangon, Mandalay, Magwe, Sagaing and Bago regions, Shan State and the Pa-O Self-Administered Zone.
The conscription law requires men aged 18 to 35 and women aged 18 to 27 to serve for a minimum of two years in the military, extendable by up to five years “in times of emergency”. The maximum draft age for those with professional and technical qualifications is 45 for men and 35 for women.
Junta media have not stated how many young men were drafted in the second intake. The regime previously said that each intake would comprise around 5,000 people, and that it would start conscripting unmarried women aged between 18 and 27 starting from the fifth intake.
Citing information on conscription broadcast by the junta’s propaganda channels on the Telegram app, research group Burma Affairs and Conflicts Study (BACS) said the junta forcibly recruited 5,000 male conscripts in the first batch 4,000 in the second.
The situation on the ground, especially in Ayeyarwady and Bago regions, suggests that the military is clearly planning to include women in its third training batch.
Ma Thazin Myint, a member of the anti-regime Katha District People’s Defense Force Battalion 2, warned women throughout the country, especially those in regions where the junta is still firmly in control, to stay away from the junta’s administrative bodies in order to avoid being forcibly conscripted.
“Sooner or later, the junta will draft everyone, women and men, to make up the numbers they need in the military,” she warned.
