Myanmar’s junta has formed a committee to train, arm and supply militias at the village and ward levels nationwide as military losses to resistance forces continue to mount.
The announcement of the panel’s formation was signed by the junta’s secretary, General Aung Lin Dwe, on Friday but has yet to be reported by regime media.
The committee, led by the junta’s border affairs minister, 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 panel will arrange supply of food, arms, and military training for the groups, according to the announcement.
It will oversee logistics support for military operations, safety behind front lines, rescue training, recruitment, and compensation for recruits killed or wounded in fighting. The body is also tasked with recruiting technicians for high-tech weapons. Recruits will be granted deferment or exemption from conscription.
The junta’s deputy defence and home affairs minister will serve as vice chairs of the panel, which will also include the police chief, assistant adjutant general, assistant quartermaster-general, deputy commanders of regional commands, and military department heads.
The panel’s formation comes two weeks after the fall of Northeastern Command in northern Shan State and six months after the regime introduced mandatory military service of two years for men aged 18-35 and women aged 18-27.
It is not yet clear which groups the regime plans to arm in its latest move.
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 army, 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 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 poll plan has been widely dismissed as a pretext to extend rule by a military that deposed the elected government of Daw Aung Suu Kyi in February 2021.
Amid surging casualties nationwide and a deepening recruitment crisis, the regime has been forcibly recruiting civilians for the armed forces or affiliated Pyu Saw Htee militias.
