Mizzima
The National Unity Consultative Council(NUCC), an advisory body of the National Unity Government (NUG) advisory body and the National League for Democracy (NLD) have called on people around the world to sign a petition against conscription in Myanmar.
The NUCC and NLD issued a joint statement on 14 March that denounced the Myanmar Conscription Law saying that conscription will target young people for forced labor and use as human shields. It also points out that normally countries only conscript people when they face foreign threats.
The petition has been posted by a group called Anti Forced Conscription on the petition website change.org, and can be signed here.
They are looking to collect at least 10,000 signatures before submitting the petition to the United Nations (UN), the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the Council of the European Union, the United Nations Security Council and the Association of SoutheastAsian Nations (ASEAN).
Below is the text of the petition:
On February 10, 2024, the military junta in Myanmar announced the illegal forced conscription directive (Nº 27/2024). This forced conscription is a blatant violation of international law and fundamental human rights, threatening peace, stability, and the well-being of the people of Myanmar. It poses a significant threat in Myanmar and the region.
The Myanmar military began an attempted coup in February 2021, and since then has no longer been working in service to the nation of Myanmar. Rather, it now operates under the command of an unelected and illegitimate military junta. Under this leadership, the military has launched a nationwide campaign of heinous crimes against the people of Myanmar in an attempt to suppress and control them. To date, the military has killed over 4,500 people, and arrested more than 26,000 including the President, State Counsellor, elected members of parliament, journalists, pro-democracy activists, religious leaders and others. Over 20,000 remain incarcerated. The military has committed massacres, indiscriminate airstrikes, artillery shelling, sexual and gender-based violence, mass torture and mass arson. As a result, 2.4 million people have fled their homes since the attempted coup began.
This recently announced forced conscription direction is to sacrifice the lives, blood, and sweat of young people in Myanmar to keep the bloody throne of the military in the country and force the unwilling young generation of Myanmar into the acts of war crimes committed by the junta. Therefore, Myanmar people around the world and across the country have condemned and objected to this vile act of forced conscription and its accessories. Due to these continuous atrocities on the people, there is an ongoing massive exodus of people to neighboring countries, causing socio-economic problems, including but not limited to humanitarian crises, human trafficking, online scams, and regional instability.
The collected signatures, which express the will of the Myanmar people, shall be presented to the various governments, ASEAN, the United Nations Security Council, the United Nations Human Rights Council, the International Labor Organization, the European Union, and other international organizations. Through this will of the people, we strongly urge the international community, not to wait for another atrocity but to take immediate, effective, legal and legislative actions against the junta.
