Junta threatens to arrest relatives of Muslims who fled displacement camp to avoid conscription

By Admin 19 Mar 2024

DMG Newsroom
19 March 2024, Kyaukphyu

Myanmar’s military regime has threatened to deport Muslims who fled the Kyauktalone IDP camp in Arakan State’s Kyaukphyu Township last month to avoid conscription, according to Muslims fleeing the camp.

The regime has told Muslims to return to the camp or have their family members arrested.

“Our family members who are left at the camp phoned and told us that [the Myanmar military] is threatening to deport us and arrest our relatives if we don’t return,” said a Muslim man who fled the camp.

More than 1,000 Muslims are taking shelter at Kyauktalone camp. Junta troops came to the camp on February 22, registering eligible persons at the camp before ordering them to serve in the military and doing medical checkups.

Some 30 men and women fled the following day to avoid conscription, but 117 males left at the camp were forcibly detained by the regime.

“We escaped as we fled on February 22 night. Soldiers surrounded the camp the next morning. I heard more than 100 people, including my relatives, were detained,” a Muslim woman who fled the Kyauktalone camp told DMG.

The escapees are currently taking shelter in an area controlled by the United League of Arakan/ Arakan Army (ULA/AA).

Those forcibly detained by the regime from Kyauktalone camp are aged between 30 and 50, and they are currently being forced to undergo military training at Battalion 34 in Kyaukphyu.

Muslim communities around the world have condemned the junta’s forced conscription of Muslim IDPs in Arakan State.

Another Muslim man who fled the Kyauktalone camp said: “We are just refugees who have been grievously suffering from various hardships and restrictions on movement. The regime has bullied us by attempting to use us for military purposes.”

DMG’s calls to junta spokesman Major-General Zaw Min Tun to ask about conscription went unanswered.

The March 17 issues of the junta’s propaganda newspapers dismissed reports of the conscription of Muslims in Arakan State as rumours.

However, a video file showing young Muslim people undergoing military training went viral on social media last week. The Arakan State security and border affairs minister was inspecting the military training, according to the video clip.

The AA has also said that it found the bodies of Muslim people in Rathedaung after it seized the town on Sunday. As the regime only introduced mandatory military service on February 10, the bodies found in Rathedaung suggested that Muslim people had undergone little or no military training at all before they were sent straight to the front line.