At least 20,000 young people forcibly recruited by regime: report

By Admin 20 Oct 2024

DMG Newsroom

20 October 2024, Sittwe

Myanmar's military regime has recruited more than 20,000 young people since it introduced mandatory two-year military service in February, the Burma Affairs and Conflict Study (BACS) organisation said in a report on October 19.

The regime recruited nearly 5,000 young people for its military training batch No. 1 and about 4,000 for batch No. 2, No. 3, No. 4 and No. 5, the report said.

"The regime no longer selects new recruits through a lottery system like before, but forcibly recruits young people along with administration officials, police and immigration authorities," the report added.

In the areas it controls, the regime has opened 23 military training schools: seven in Shan State, four in Mandalay, two each in Mon State, Sagaing, Yangon, Bago and Ayeyarwady regions, and one each in Magway and Tanintharyi regions.

During the recruitment process, the regime initially announced that those who had completed the military training would only serve in the security forces in their areas.

However, the report shows that in reality, those who have attended military training have been sent to checkpoints and frontline battlefields, where some have been killed in action.

It was easy for the regime to recruit trainees for military training batch Nos. 1 and 2, but later it resorted to forced recruitment and other coercive measures, according to the report.

Conscription is mainly faced by the financially poor grassroots rather than the well-off, and if married men die on the front lines, the socio-economic status of the surviving family deteriorates.

In Arakan State, the regime has forcibly recruited Muslims to serve in the military, forcing them to fight on the battlefield, and family members are worried as there are people who have not heard news of their loved ones since they were conscripted.

"There are many people who are still not sure if they will survive because they were called up for military training and sent to the front line. Family members are also worried that those conscripts who were forcibly recruited will be sent to the front line," said the mother of a Muslim conscript in Sittwe.

Political analysts are predicting that the fighting will intensify across the country as the regime continues to bolster its manpower using forced conscription in an effort to retake territories it has lost to resistance forces.

"The regime's recruitment and military reinforcements are meant to take back the lost areas. Therefore, we can see that the fighting will continue to intensify nationwide," said a military observer.

The BACS report said there is a need to provide comprehensive knowledge about the regime's compulsory military service tactics throughout Myanmar, and also a need for organisations that will help young people to evade conscription.