Myanmar’s junta has launched nighttime conscription raids on households in four Mandalay townships it still controls, according to residents.
The raids have rounded up around 50 young men in Patheingyi, Maha Aungmyay, Pyigyitagun and Chanmyathazi townships this month, locals said.
Squads of junta administrators, soldiers, police and allied militias use overnight guest inspections as a pretext to conduct midnight checks on households, abducting draft-age men. The squads are reportedly taking family members as hostages if the draftees cannot be found.
On Tuesday, administrators in Ye Mon Taung ward, Maha Aungmyay Township ordered all newly draftees to be ready for conscription the following morning.
“Ward administrative officials said they would come and get them at 9 am tomorrow. They said if they don’t find the draftees, they would take someone else [from their house].”
Junta teams raided Maha Aungmyay Township wards on Sunday, abducting five men they claimed were eligible for conscription. In Setkyar Nwesin ward, junta personnel abducted a mother after failing to find her 20-year-old son at home, according to a resident.
“He is working away from home. They detained his mother, saying she would be released when her son exchanges himself for her. Another man on the [conscription] list escaped as he no longer lives there,” he said.
A relative of another abductee told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday: “They came in military vehicles at night and went straight to the homes of draft-age people. They have a name list.”
“[My draft-age relative] was away in Pyin Sar [in Pyin Oo Lwin]. They turned the house upside down as they searched for him. They threatened to take children aged five and six from the house instead. We had to beg them not to. They forced us to phone him immediately. As he couldn’t come back at night, we had to send him [to the ward administration office] this morning,” she said.
Young migrants and people who have fled fighting elsewhere are the main targets of the overnight guest inspections, according to residents.
Inspections are particularly frequent in Patheingyi Township, which houses large numbers of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and migrants.
A volunteer helping IDPs said: “If a person is arrested during overnight guest checks, they are fined 50,000 to 500,000 kyats. Teams of administrative officials, soldiers and Pyu Saw Htee militias threaten them with forced conscription if they don’t pay the fine. They have been making money out of the conscription drive. IDPs are having a hard time,” he said.
Junta personnel arrested two men during overnight inspections in Chanmyathazi Township on Saturday. On the same day, a young man was detained and beaten by personnel in Maha Aungmyay.
The Irrawaddy contacted Thein Htay, spokesman of the junta’s Mandalay Region government for comment but received no response.
A Mandalay administrative official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the tightened checks but denied that young men were being abducted.
As fighting intensifies in villages near the border of Madaya and Patheingyi townships, just 16 km from Mandalay city where the military’s Central Command is located, the junta has expanded its defensive perimeter north of Mandalay. According to residents, the regime is also tightening checks at city entrances and increasing patrols along the Irrawaddy River.
