All governmental departments in Yangon and Naypyitaw have been ordered to make lists of staff eligible for conscription and submit the lists to region-level committees by tomorrow, leaked documents and government staff say.
The move is part of the junta’s effort to beef up its depleted military through conscription after months of humiliating losses on the battlefield and rising resistance across the country.
In a leaked document issued by the Yangon Region government, its cabinet ordered all governmental departments in the region to submit a list of male staff between 18 and 35 years old and female staff between 18 and 27 years by February 19.
The regional government then ordered the departments to submit both hard and soft copies of the lists showing all the relevant details by February 21.
The swift collection of data on governmental employees follows the activation last week of the Conscription Law, following repeated military defeats across Myanmar.
The law allows the military to conscript all men aged 18-35 and women aged 18-27 to serve in the military for two to five years. The upper age limit rises to 45 for men and 35 for women for those with professional skills, like doctors and engineers.
The junta’s rush to compile conscription-related information on government staff has triggered unease in the civil service.
A 26-year-old female worker at a customs office in a township in Yangon confirmed that the junta is gathering detailed information on staff eligible to serve in the military.
“The heads of each department gathered the information on those of us who are in the age range eligible to serve and submitted the information to the regional government,” she said. A national level committee in charge of drafting people will decide who will be conscripted, and it will start conscripting government staff at the same time as other citizens, she added.
Government staff in Naypyitdaw said the same conscription process was being followed there.
Experts and analysts say the junta could be signaling to the world that it is in a precarious position on the battlefield.
In Yangon Region, members of ward administration committees have been compiling lists of residents eligible to serve in the junta’s military.
They are, however, not using a single approach to collect conscription data. On the outskirts of the city, ward administration committees are identifying residents eligible for recruitment by checking names with ages and photos. Closer to the city center, ward administration committees are still gathering information about the number of residents in their wards and dividing residents by gender. They have yet to put them into age groups.
Daw Aye, a 57-year-old widow who lives in South Dagon Township, says she does not know who will take care of her if her son – who is eligible to serve in the junta’s military – is conscripted.
“My son is 27-year-old. He works hard and looks after me well. I haven’t even slept at night since this news began spreading, wondering when my son will be drafted,” she said.
