Locals report that the military council has been forcibly recruiting people for military training in some townships and villages in Bago and Ayeyarwady Regions since the People’s Military Service Law came into force.
The military council threatened villages in Koke Kaing village tract in Daik-U Township, Bago Region, to provide ten people per village and took them away by force, according to a local woman.
“They asked ten people from each village. They had to go with them because junta soldiers threatened to burn down the village if they refused. The ten people were around 60 years old. What people are saying about the minimum age of 18 and this and that is just nonsense. None of the people who were taken from the village are under 30 years old; they are all over 50, or 60. They say that anyone who is taken must serve for three years,” the woman said.
After announcing the activation of the conscription law through the media it controls, the military council told the public that implementation would begin at the end of April this year.
However, in Yedashe and Swa Townships in the eastern Bago Region, residents are living in fear as the forced recruitment is taking place not only at night but also during the day, and locals say that young people no longer even dare to go outside during the day.
A woman from Swa said, “They said they would only start recruiting in April, but they have already started forcibly taking people as porters. They do this not only at night, but also during the day. That’s why no one dares to go out on the streets now. Whatever the law says, they do what they want.”
A few days after the military council announced that it had enforced the conscription law, it said it would set up a people’s military service board and recruit 50,000 soldiers per state and region annually from the end of April this year, with 5,000 people per training batch.
However, apart from Bago Region, forced recruitment is already underway in towns in the Ayeyarwady Region such as Kyonpyaw and Myaungmya by lots , according to locals.
A resident of Myaungmya said: “All villages here have to draw lots – five people per village tract. Our village did not have to draw lots because there are people from our village who are serving in the military. Some villages have registered men of old age, but the military council does not refuse to take them. They say the new recruits only have to complete a month’s training and then return.”
There are reports of young people being forcibly recruited or used as porters in towns and villages in other regions and states after the People’s Military Service Law came into force.
This has caused fear among the public and most young people are fleeing abroad by any means possible, according to regional sources.
The military council responded through its own media that it was only carrying out inspections because revolutionary forces may have infiltrated the towns and villages and that the reports of manpower recruitment were fabricated.
Sent by KIC.