Photo:CJ
Mizzima
Young people not from Kawthaung, Myanmar’s southernmost town in Tanintharyi Region on the border with Thailand, have been banned from entering the town to stop them fleeing to Thailand to escape conscription.
The junta will only allow youths whose ID cards show that they are resident in Tanintharyi Region to enter Kawthaung. Youths from other areas are barred from entering the town. Soldiers manning roadblocks on the road to Kawthaung have told youths from other areas to return home, whilst still allowing older people from other areas to pass.
Kawthaung, on the southernmost tip of Myanmar, lies just across the Kra Buri River from the Thai city of Ranong and the authorities are worried that youths who want to avoid being conscripted into the army will fllee across the Kra Buri into Thailand.
Unfortunately for youths trying to get to Kawthaung, the only way to get there overland is to take the Myeik to Kawthaung road that goes through Tanintharyi and Bokpyin townships. It is easy enough for the junta to set up roadblocks on the road to prevent youths reaching Kawthaung as there are no alternative overland routes to Kawthaung.
From the third week in March, the junta started setting up roadblocks on the road to Kawthaung.
A bus driver who works on the Myeik to Kawthaung bus route said: “The military council’s security checkpoints have recently intensified their operations. Specifically, people who are not residents of Kawthaung are being instructed to return to their original destinations, with some even facing arrest.”
He did also remark that it was only younger people being denied entry to Kawthaung, older people were being allowed to continue to the town.
Another bus driver on the same route said: “On 24 March, as numerous young men and women were traveling in passenger cars out of Myeik Town, approximately 40 young people were stopped and questioned at the Pathaung-Kyaynanthaing checkpoint just outside Myeik. I don’t exactly know what will happen to them.”
Though the junta is restricting entry to Kawthaung, the Kawthaung to Ranong border crossing remains open.
Following the introduction of the Myanmar conscription law on 10 February 2024 there has been a surge of young people leaving Myanmar for Thailand. That includes a surge in the number of young people crossing from Kawtahung into Thailand, according to locals.
