Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing enforced Myanmar’s longstanding conscription law last Saturday amid heavy regime casualties and desertions.
The activation of the People’s Military Service Law by the highly unpopular regime met with a public outcry as military officials announced that 14 million of the country’s young people are eligible for conscription. That amounts to 26 percent of the country’s population of 54 million.
Undeterred, the junta has wasted no time enforcing the law, forming committees to conduct the conscription and announcing that the first batch of new soldiers would be called up in April.
Various annual recruitment figures have been given. Junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun first said it would be 60,000; then 50,000. But on Thursday he said that “only one person out of every 200 people” would be conscripted. Based on that figure and the number of people eligible to serve, however, the number of recruits would be 70,000. Below, The Irrawaddy presents the key facts of the conscription process in numbers after breaking down the information made available so far in relation to the law and its implementation.
Editor’s note: The story was updated to add the percentage of the whole population that is eligible for conscription.
