Junta uses newly-recruited conscripts as ‘human waves’ on frontlines

By Admin 24 Jan 2026

DMG Newsroom

24 January 2026, Ann

Captured junta soldiers have revealed that Myanmar’s military regime is deploying newly-recruited conscripts, who were forcibly drafted, as “human waves” on frontlines across the country against revolutionary forces.

The military regime has reportedly been arresting draft-eligible individuals, including youths, providing them with basic military training, and sending them to battlefields where they face frontline combat.

Captured conscripts said Myanmar military officers place the new recruits at the forefront of attacks and threaten to shoot any who attempt to retreat.

“For exhausting tasks, they use newly-recruited conscripts like us. When we have to engage the enemy or move forward for an attack, they make us go to the front while junta soldiers and officers stay behind. In battles, it is mostly the newly-recruited conscripts who are killed or wounded,” said Chit Ko Zin, a junta conscript captured by the Arakan Army during the battle for Pazi Village on the Ann-Padan Road.

His statement was included in a video released by the Arakan Army on 23 January.

He added, “When a battle breaks out, we dare not run forward nor retreat. If we run forward, we will be shot by the enemy; if we retreat, the battalion commander threatens to shoot us.”

Chit Ko Zin, a native of Bago Region, was arrested by junta soldiers around 9:00 PM on 1 July 2025 while returning from work as a daily-wage labourer in Yangon. He was interrogated and forced to join the military the following day. After more than a month at a recruitment centre, he began basic military training on 16 July 2025.

He completed basic training on 5 October 2025 and was sent to an advanced training school before being assigned to Light Infantry Battalion No. 259.

Chit Ko Zin said he arrived at the frontline alongside 118 other newly-recruited conscripts and was captured by the Arakan Army on 17 January 2026 during the Pazi Village battle in Magway Region.

Observers said the military regime, facing defeats nationwide, is relying heavily on new conscripts to regain control of lost territories.

Because these conscripts lack sufficient basic military skills and combat experience, casualties and captures on the frontlines are high.

“The military regime is using newly-recruited conscripts as human waves, sending lives to their deaths. The regime arrests youths, gives them military training, and uses them as sacrificial pawns. This is one of the most terrifying war crimes I have witnessed. The junta chief is trampling on human beings to maintain his power,” said a human rights activist in Arakan State.

Following territorial losses amid offensives by revolutionary forces, the military regime has activated the conscription law to fill personnel shortages, currently reaching military training intake No. 21.