Mizzima
The Myanmar junta’s third round of conscriptions has caused an exodus of young people from Ayeyarwady Region townships.
Amongst the townships where this is happening are Pathein, Kangyidaunt, Zalun, Maubin, and Pyapon.
“In our Pyapon Township, three to eight people from each ward are fleeing to other regions and states. There are some quarters where no one has fled, but in most of the quarters people are fleeing”, said a Pyapon resident.
Since late April, township administration offices have reportedly summoned ten men aged 18 to 35 from each ward and village tract across the Ayeyarwady Region. Many of those summoned have refused to turn up for service. This has forced ward and village administrators, along with office clerks to go to potential conscripts’ homes to serve them directly with their call-up papers, according to a Zalun Township resident.
They said: “People are scared to even stay in their homes. If the son has run away to avoid military service, the remaining family members are being threatened by the ward administrator.”
The first batch of conscripts, men aged 18 to 35, was selected in April 2024. But the full quota did not turn up to serve, so the junta had to have a lottery to select more potential conscripts.
A source close to the junta said, “Now, the third batch has begun. Those who were called in the first batch are already on the front lines.”
Political activists believe that people may be even more reluctant to join the third batch of conscripts as they have heard reports that the first batch is already serving on the frontline.
“No one wants to go for military service. For the first batch, those who had money paid ward administrators to use substitutes for them, whilst the many others who lacked funds had to go despite not wanting to”, said a political activist.
Because they are finding it so hard to get conscripts to turn up, ward and village administrators have handed lists of conscripts to junta soldiers so that they can find the conscripts and forcibly take them away, according to a member of an Ayeyarwady Region people’s defence force (PDF).
