The Myanmar junta started organizing ward-level militias in the commercial hub of Yangon in late August as its losses to resistance groups elsewhere in the country mount.
The militias target the grassroots in community wards, according to residents in different townships.
In Thingangyun, North Dagon, Hlaing Thar Yar, Shwepyithar, Twante, Dala and other townships, ward administrators are luring mostly older trishaw drivers to join so-called People’s Security and Anti-Terrorism Groups.
In mid-August, the junta formed a committee to train, arm and supply militias at the village and ward levels nationwide. The announcement was signed by junta secretary General Aung Lin Dwe.
Its formation came 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 all men aged 18-35 and women aged 18-27.
But for these newly formed militia groups, mainly older people are being drafted, though some are as young as 27, The Irrawaddy has found.
In Yangon’s Thingangyun Township, motorized trishaw drivers were leaned on by their ward administrators to join their People’s Security Groups with the incentive of buying fuel at any gas station.
U Min, a 54-year-old trishaw driver in Thingangyun, registered to become a member of the People’s Security group in his ward on Aug. 27.
“With this card I can now buy the gasoline I need to fill my motorcycle every day, and if the police or traffic police stop me on the road they can’t arrest me for driving an illegal trishaw,” he added.
The membership card seen by The Irrawaddy shows personal details of the member like their name, father’s name, national registration card number, address, as well as the date of issue. On the back it says the card holder must be able to “coordinate in the activities for the ward’s peace and order”.
U Min and other card holders understand that this means that they should be given access to training or arms.
U Zaw, a 52-year-old trishaw driver in South Okkalapa Township, said he too signed up only to get gasoline and would not have joined the military.
“If they’d told me to come and serve in the military I would just have run away from my town and hidden somewhere else. But I need this card for survival at the moment,” he said.
Motorized trishaws are motorcycles with a small sidecar with seating for one or two people and a tarpaulin roof. They are officially illegal but are chosen by many residents in Yangon’s suburbs for shorter rides in their neighborhood.
Until recently they were tolerated and allowed to buy as much fuel as they needed, but since the latest round of fuel shortages last month they have been denied access to fuel in most townships in Yangon.
But People’s Security Group card holders can buy up to a gallon a day at any gas station.
According to a local media report, the junta has also started drafting men over 35 into People’s Security Groups in Bilin, Thaton, Chaungzon and Ye Townships in Mon State since Aug. 24.
In Karen State, the administrator of Bar Cup village in Hpa-an Township invited households to attend a meeting on Aug. 29 to form a People’s Security Group, according to a document leaked online.
“We will organize our village’s Security Group with 10 hardcore members and 20 other reserved members aged between 35 to 65. Therefore you must attend the meeting without fail,” the document read.
The moves suggest that the junta is increasingly desperate in the face of mounting losses to a myriad of resistance groups.
In a statement on Sept. 4, the National Unity Government (NUG) said that the junta’s military council established a subordinate group named the “Central Command for Public Security and Counter-Terrorism” attempting to forcibly mobilize citizens aged 35 to 65 for combat.
The military “is desperately looking to use the entire country and its people as hostages and human shields for the sole purpose of prolonging its own survival,” the NUG said.
It called on the international community to take effective action to stop the regime from using citizens as human shields and to support the People’s Spring Revolution, which strives to end dictatorship in Myanmar.
