This article was originally published by Radio Free Asia and is reprinted with permission.
Authorities in Myanmar forcibly recruited more than 70 young men from a single town in the south-central Ayeyarwady region, residents said Monday, as the junta launched a new round of training for the country’s draftees.
It’s the latest round-up under Myanmar’s military service law, which the junta began implementing last April as a way of shoring up its dwindling ranks amid mounting losses to rebel groups.
On March 14, junta troops in Ayeyarwady’s Mawlamyinegyun township arrested more than 70 men — including some as young as 17 years old — and sent them to depots in the Yangon region to take part in the 11th round of military training, residents told RFA Burmese.
The arrests were carried out by troops from the junta’s 534th Infantry Battalion based in Mawlamyinegyun, said one resident who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke to RFA on condition of anonymity due to security concerns.
“Young people in the villages are too afraid to sleep at home at night due to fear of conscription,” he said. “Soldiers are forcibly arresting them. The local battalion is carrying out the arrests, and at times, parents have no idea where to look for their children [after they are taken].”
The identities of the young men were not immediately clear, and RFA was unable to independently verify who was taken in the dragnet.
Attempts by RFA to contact Khin Maung Kyi, the junta’s spokesperson and social affairs minister for the Ayeyarwady region, for comment on the situation went unanswered Monday.
The forced recruitment comes after residents of Ayeyarwady’s Hinthada, Laputta, and Kangyidaung townships last month said that several young men fled the area after they were summoned by name for conscription, instead of an earlier used lottery system.
Administrators targeted over draft
Under the mandatory military service law, men aged 18 to 35 and women aged 18 to 27 must serve a minimum of two years in the military. Young people have been looking for ways to leave the country ever since the law was enacted.
Many new recruits have been sent for training after being detained at gunpoint by junta troops. They face torture or execution if they are caught trying to escape.
In late February, rebels in Myanmar’s Bago region assassinated two local administrators who forcibly recruited civilians for military service, residents and other sources said, bringing the number of officials killed for their involvement in carrying out the draft to at least 110.
Prior to the incidents, the latest killing of an administrator for their involvement in military recruitment was that of Than Htwe, of Khwet Ma village in Magway region’s Minhla township, who was shot dead on Feb. 15.
Between February and September 2024, anti-junta forces killed 108 ward and village administrators involved in recruiting, compiling name lists and extorting money for military service, according to data compiled by RFA.
