Myanmar’s junta has intensified forcible conscription to replenish its ranks amid a series of battlefield defeats. Severe setbacks, especially in Rakhine and Kachin states, have seen several hundred regime troops captured or killed, including those pressganged under the new conscription law.
Fear is now mounting that more young men will be snatched for military training and rapidly dispatched to war zones where junta forces are struggling badly.
In Rakhine State, the Arakan Army (AA) seized Maungdaw Township and its Border Guard Police Battalion No. 5 on December 8, securing full control over Myanmar’s 270-kilometer border with Bangladesh.
The AA has now seized 12 of Rakhine’s 17 townships, as well as Paletwa Township in neighboring Chin State.
The junta is desperate to increase troop numbers to defend its few remaining Rakhine strongholds from the AA’s relentless advance.
In Kachin State, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and allies have gained partial or full control in 12 of the 18 townships and are attacking the strategic town of Bhamo.
Embattled junta military and administrative bodies have responded by escalating efforts to fill growing gaps in both frontline and rearward positions.
The junta has called up eight batches of conscripts, totaling around 30,000 men, since launching the conscription process in March. Regime administrative, military, and police officials are now rounding up young people in territory they control for the upcoming 9th and 10th batches of training.
Major cities like Yangon and Mandalay remain hotspots for the junta’s forcible recruitment. At around 11 pm on December 10, soldiers and police snatched eight men aged 25-27 off the street in U San Pe ward of Thingangyun Township, Yangon.
A 52-year-old aunt of one of the victims recounted the incident. “Four young men, including three Muslim men, were sitting on the street when two trucks of troops and a police car arrived. Without saying anything, the security forces grabbed them and threw them into their vehicles.”
Junta snatch squads then raided three other houses in the ward, arresting four more young men. They informed the families that the men were being conscripted and that there was nothing the families could do to get them back, according to residents.
Families have been told only that the young men are being detained at No. 1 Interrogation Centre in Hlaing Township for health and other checks, before being sent to military training schools.
“An officer told us that we could send them food, medicine, and other necessities,” said the mother of a young man arrested for conscription in Thingangyun. “However, we are not allowed to visit them or contact them by phone.”
The Yangon Region General Administration Department (GAD) has reportedly informed its offices at the township, village tract, and ward levels that they can draft any young person aged 18 to 35, anywhere and anytime, as per the conscription law.
A resident of Si Man Kane ward in Yangon’s South Okkalapa Township said that, unlike previous conscription rounds, families can no longer bribe administrators or soldiers to exempt their sons or brothers from the draft.
“In the past, families could pay bribes ranging from 20,000 to 30,000 kyats or more to persuade administrators to exempt their family members from conscription. However, these deals are no longer available. Instead, the junta forces are aggressively selecting as many healthy young men as they can from each ward,” he explained.
In Yangon’s neighboring region of Bago, 17 young men from Shwe Taung Township have reportedly been snatched for conscription over the past week.
Within the past two weeks, residents report that at least 65 conscription-aged men have been arrested in Ye-U Township, Sagaing Region and Myingyan Township, Mandalay Region.
Meanwhile, in Mandalay City, 41 young men were arrested for conscription in Mahar Aung Myay, Aung Myay Tharzan, Pyi Gyi Takon, and Amarapura townships between December 1 and 9, according to the Voice of Mandalay, a group monitoring junta oppression.
D Nyein Lynn, chief of the Yangon Region Command of the People’s Defense Force (PDF) under the National Unity Government, has issued a Facebook warning about forcible conscription arrests.
“All young people in Yangon need to be alert as forcible drafting and arrests have surged,” he said. “Among the junta troops we have captured recently, 80 percent are new recruits.”
Frequent reports of forced conscription have led to a sharp drop in nighttime activities in major cities like Yangon and Mandalay. Fear of abduction by authorities has left people reluctant to venture out after sunset, with streets almost deserted after 8 pm.
MDY Revolution, an urban guerrilla group from Mandalay, reports that regime officials have abandoned their previous practice of accepting bribes for release or replacement of conscripts or conducting random selections in villages. Instead, they are directly transporting individuals to military bases and forcing them into service.
