Call-up chaos
Myanmar junta officials began collecting personal details of citizens eligible for compulsory military service this week, triggering widespread alarm in cities.
Detailed data collection processes are now underway in Naypyitaw and Yangon, in particular. On Friday, junta-controlled newspapers sought to quell any panic by denying that registration papers were being delivered and dismissing the reports as fake news.
But contrary to the denials, junta-appointed Yangon Region chief minister Soe Thein presided over a meeting to coordinate conscription on Thursday, when he called for complete accuracy in data collection.
Officials have duly begun distributing military service registration forms to households.
A registration form seen by The Irrawaddy asks for personal details covering 25 areas, including name, address, ID number, educational qualification, occupation, health condition, and marital status.
In some wards, administrators are using megaphones to urge eligible residents to register. In others, a lottery system is being used to select draftees.
The regime has apparently been busy with preparations in the five weeks since it introduced mandatory military service. Meanwhile, massive numbers of young people are leaving the country to avoid conscription under a junta widely reviled for its atrocities against Myanmar’s people.
Massacring the truth
Against a backdrop of rampant war crimes and atrocities, junta minister Aung Kyaw Hoe somehow kept a straight face on Thursday when he told the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)’s representative that the regime is strictly observing international humanitarian law.
During a meeting with the ICRC’s Elena Ajmone Sessera, the minister for the State Administration Council Chairman’s Office (3) claimed the regime is providing healthcare services in conflict zones.
There is overwhelming evidence that it is doing just the opposite.
The regime has targeted not only healthcare facilities but also schools and temporary shelters for displaced people with air raids and artillery strikes. Separately, it has conducted numerous arson attacks on villages around the country, central Myanmar in particular.
The junta has held occasional meetings with international humanitarian bodies, but its terror campaign against civilians has only intensified since the coup, with dozens of victims beheaded, burned-alive, disemboweled, or dismembered.
Last month, junta soldiers shot dead two former political prisoners – a man and a woman – for allegedly attempting to escape detention.
Whatever the international humanitarian bodies tell junta officials, it goes in one ear and out the other.
Comms cut in resistance hotbeds
The freedom of expression group Athan says the regime is cutting communications to stop anti-regime groups coordinating. Read more
Draft-Age residents summoned in Yangon, Naypyitaw
In some townships, young people and their parents are being called in by ward-level officials and asked to complete conscription paperwork or pay bribes, residents say. Read more
