Interview: After labelling Muslims in Arakan State as interlopers from Bangladesh, junta now calls them ‘citizens’ to justify conscription

By Admin 14 Apr 2024

DMG Newsroom
14 April 2024

The Myanmar regime introduced mandatory military service on February 10 to shore up its military, seriously depleted by daily clashes with resistance forces in many parts of the country. The regime has since started registering young people eligible to be drafted into the military. It has already sent conscripts to the front line after providing a few weeks of military training.

In Arakan State, the regime has also been forcibly conscripting Arakanese people as well as Muslims, sending them to the front line. Many Muslims have fled to dodge the draft.

DMG recently interviewed a Muslim man, identified here by the pseudonymous initials J.T., who fled the Kyauktalone displacement camp in Kyaukphyu Township to avoid conscription.

DMG:  When did the regime start conscripting displaced people at the Kyauktalone camp?

J.T.: We were notified about conscription on February 16. Then they told us on February 20 that each household must give a man. The conscription law says men aged between 18 and 35 are eligible. But, people as old as 55 were conscripted from our camp.

DMG: Why did you flee?

J.T.: The military has always called us Bengali interlopers. Many [Muslims] who have been drafted do not have citizenship identification cards. After enacting the conscription law, they told us, ‘You are citizens, and you must serve in the military and work for the country.’ It is not fair. So, I have fled to avoid conscription.

DMG: How did you manage to escape?

J.T.: As we could not flee by the main road, we fled through the forest. There we met AA [Arakan Army] officials, and we told them that we had fled to avoid conscription. We are now taking shelter at a place controlled by the AA. The AA has provided us with food, shelter and clothes.

DMG: What difficulties are you facing?

J.T.: We don’t have jobs here, and friends and relatives can’t supply us adequately. We manage to eke by on what we have. The AA has supplied us with as much as it can.

DMG: We heard the regime has threatened and arrested the family members of escapees. How many people do you know of who have been arrested?

J.T.: It has arrested the family members of four escapees. The father of one of the escapees is a stroke patient and also has eye complaints. Both he and his wife were arrested. The regime also arrested the father of another escapee. The third escapee had his wife and their 15-day-old baby arrested, and the fourth escapee also had his wife and their 18-month-old baby arrested. They were taken in a prisoner transport vehicle.

They were released later. The stroke patient and his wife were allowed to return to the [Kyauktalone] displacement camp.  But [camp officials] did not allow the others to return. They were forcibly evicted. Two women and a baby joined us to take shelter in AA territory. Others are staying at Gone Chein Village.

DMG: Do you know if any of the conscripted men from the displacement camp have been sent to the front line?

J.T.: A total of 117 men aged between 18 and 55 were taken. I heard they were given 14 days of training at Light Infantry Battalion 542. Fifty of them have been sent to guard checkpoints together with junta soldiers. I heard they would have to serve 15 days at those checkpoints. Then they will be sent to the rear and rotated out by 50 others.

DMG: How is the situation of displaced people at the Kyauktalone displacement camp?

J.T.: Family members of the conscripts can freely go around Kyaukphyu town. But family members of those who have evaded conscription are confined to the camp.

DMG: Thank you.