There have been fatalities among recently trained Muslims and those conscripted under the People’s Military Service Law in the ongoing offensive on Kyaukphyu town, Arakan State, as the junta has deployed them to the frontlines with limited combat experience, according to reports.
In the clashes in Kyaukphyu Township, not only are Muslims from the Kyauk Ta Lone checkpoint, who underwent a 45-day military training course, being utilized, but also young Muslim trainees from Sittwe are being sent to the Kyaukphyu battlefield, a military source revealed.
“In the Kyaukphyu clashes, more Muslims and conscripts with no combat skills have been killed this month. These include not only conscripts from Kyaukphyu but also reinforcements sent from Sittwe. They don’t have combat experience, yet the junta forces them to fight on the frontlines,” the source said.
The bodies of some Muslim conscripts have been found in the ongoing clashes. Statements from captured junta soldiers confirm that Muslim recruits are being used in the Kyaukphyu battle, the military source added.
While the junta sends injured soldiers to public hospitals in Yangon, Sittwe, and Kyaukphyu for treatment, Muslim conscripts are secretly treated within military bases and at the Kyauk Ta Lone checkpoint, reportedly due to fears of information leaks.
“When junta soldiers are injured, they’re treated at hospitals in Kyaukphyu, Sittwe, or Yangon. But for Muslims, the junta doesn’t allow treatment in urban centers or Yangon. They’re afraid the public will find out they’re using Muslims. They fear the world will see that they’re forcibly sending inexperienced recruits to their deaths,” the military source explained.
However, local residents report seeing armed Muslim trainees, who completed military training, stationed as security guards at Kyaukphyu’s Nga La Pwayt port.
“Muslim soldiers killed in the clashes are buried near the Kyauk Ta Lone relief camp, while the injured are quietly treated at junta battalions and the Kyauk Ta Lone checkpoint,” a local resident said.
Attempts to contact U Khaing Thukha, spokesperson for the Arakan Army (AA), to comment on the junta’s use of Muslim conscripts in the Kyaukphyu clashes have not yet received a response.
U Khaing Tin Tin Maung, a member of the AA since its establishment by General Khaing Raza, commented: “The junta uses every method to recruit young people from the mainland. In Arakan, they conscript Muslim youths from areas under their control and send them to the frontlines. These recruits don’t even get proper training, let alone combat skills. This is just the junta generals deliberately sacrificing them to save themselves.”
In February 2024, a junta strategic commander personally oversaw the forced conscription of 107 young men from the Kyauk Ta Lone Muslim IDP camp in Kyaukphyu for military training. These individuals are now being deployed to the battlefronts, according to residents.
Sent by Narinjara.