Seven youths who returned to Lashio from Laukkaing were reportedly detained by the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) for military service.
The seven youths, who had left Laukkaing on 24 November to return home, went missing before reaching Chin Shwe Haw and were arrested by MNDAA Kokang troops on 25 November to serve as soldiers, according to displaced people from Laukkaing.
“Kokang soldiers arrested them on their way from Laukkaing to Chin Shwe Haw. The soldiers also burned their NRCs. They said they were forced to take off their clothes and wear MNDAA uniforms immediately. Six of them were arrested together and one was arrested separately. They are being held at Chin Shwe Haw camp,” said a relative of the detained youths.
Those detained by the MNDAA to be used as soldiers include Sai Lian Han (20 years old) from Lashio, Sai Aik Naw (18 years old), Sai Aik Law (26 years old), Maung Nyi Kar (19 years old) and Sai Aung Hlaing (27 years old), Sai Hlaing (26 years old), Maung Naw Gun (20 years old) from Mansi Township in Kachin State, according to their families and people close to them.
The parents of the youths detained by the MNDAA troops in Kokang said they learned about the incident from their children’s friends who had returned to Lashio in late November and called on the MNDAA to release the detained youths.
In November, the MNDAA troops detained about 20 locals in Theinni Township, including underage youths, and in Monekoe in Muse Township, according to locals, they also disrobed novices and took them away to be used as soldiers.
In addition, in Pang Hseng (Kyu Gote), which they have declared to be under their administration, they are already collecting the residents’ registers. On 4 December, they came and took not only men over the age of 15 but also women to be used as soldiers, according to the residents of Pang Hseng.
MNDAA spokesman Li Kyar Win said they are recruiting troops, including women, without ethnic discrimination, from the age of 16 in the designated areas of Special Region 1, which includes Kokang, Kutkai and Theinni districts and Monekoe, where women will be assigned to office duties and men will be required to serve as combat troops.
Sent by Shan Herald.