In most townships of Mon State, including Ye Township, where martial law has been declared, the military council has threatened to enforce military service against those who violate regional military administration orders. According to some reports, people are being arrested and sent for military training.
While the military initially recruited trainees for the first batch of military training using financial incentives, locals say that by Batch 8, they are now arbitrarily arresting people to gather recruits for military training.
Due to this situation, most residents in Ye Township are living under a curfew-like restriction after 6 PM. Even during the daytime, people need recommendation letters from local administrative bodies to travel between villages.
According to local sources, the military council’s current forced recruitment serves two purposes: gathering trainees for military service and addressing the severe shortage of security personnel in the military, police, and government departments. They believe the council is building up manpower reserves for future use.
Here are some voices from Mon youth in the region about how these illegal arrests for military service are affecting their lives, creating security concerns, and restricting their physical and mental freedom:
A youth from Mudon
The situation is as everyone knows – it’s not safe to travel. They arrest young people on the streets for conscription. They don’t announce when or how they’ll make arrests, so we’re worried about moving around, and parents won’t let us go out anymore. Wherever you go, you feel like there’s danger all around. It’s our country’s leaders who are making us feel this way. It feels like there’s no one to help us. It’s become difficult to reach our goals. Parents can’t support us anymore because they’re afraid we might be caught by the military service law. When I was young, I wanted to grow up and be free to leave home. Now that I’m older, in this situation, there’s no freedom – instead, we got fear and worry.
Young people have so many things they want to do – going places, having fun, that sort of thing. Now they’ve really restricted and limited the rights of young people. It feels unfair. Everyone can see on social media how young people in other countries live with complete freedom of movement. When you compare, it hurts more. You start feeling inferior. If someone gets arrested by the military council, all information about that person completely disappears. Nobody knows what happened. Once you’re arrested, there’s practically no way to resolve it. So you have to be cautious before getting arrested. Before going to work, you have to carefully check what’s happening where.
A young woman from Ye
Because of these arbitrary arrests and being forced to serve as porters, the later you return home, the more dangerous it is. They also conduct checks at night. They check our phones, and if they find anything work-related on your phone – even if your work is legal – you worry they might use it as an excuse to arrest you if they want to. We’re afraid of being forced into military service. We’re afraid for our safety. There are also many thieves to be afraid of.
After the military coup, there hasn’t been any freedom at all. We can’t do what we want. We can’t even find our future – we’re still lost. And how can anything work out when they (the military council) seem to be watching everything we do? It’s hard to accept that young people can’t even live like young people. During this time, with so many people disappearing, I even wish we could wear GPS trackers. You need to know about motorcycles, phones, home phones, and that you shouldn’t go out at night if possible. Even if you do go out, you should know not to go to places where there aren’t many people around.
A young woman from Mawlamyine
The scariest thing is military service. If you get arrested, you can’t do anything – all your aspirations go dark. Young people are supposed to travel, gain new experiences, that sort of thing. Without freedom of movement, we have fewer experiences, and it’s hard to bear. As a young person, even to travel you need recommendation letters and such. Instead of going far, we can only travel nearby.
If they arrest you, there’s nothing you can do. Since we don’t know when they’ll make arrests, we have to be as careful as we can. If I had to serve in the military, I’d rather be a soldier for the Mon side than for the military council. You can join the Mon side anytime. What I’m seeing now is that most young people don’t want to do anything anymore.
A youth from Thanbuzayat
Above all, we have to be careful with our phone. What they (junta soldiers) find on phones might be nothing, but they make huge problems out of it. If they find you’re working with any organization, they make accusations. I’ve experienced them claiming it was related to politics. They accused my friend’s singing photo of being related to the revolution, saying things like ‘you have patriotic sentiments.’ It’s best not to have anything related to ethnicity on there. Among young people, they worry less about themselves and more about their families. For example, if someone refuses military service and decides to hide or join the revolution, they’re afraid of how it will affect their families left at home. There are only two ways to avoid military service: leave the country or join the revolution.
Young people aren’t afraid of losing their lives – they only worry about their families. You can’t trust anyone anymore. We don’t see the Mon Unity Party taking action for Mon people. It’s the same with the New Mon State Party. But we see them supporting their party members. They don’t do anything for ordinary local youth. When there’s an incident, nobody follows up because they’re afraid of getting involved. Village heads, administrators – whoever they are – they’re afraid to follow up. Nobody wants to get involved with politics. They only deal with what directly affects them. If possible, I don’t want young people posting anything political online. Even if you do something, I want you to be smart about it. Another thing I want to urge is, if possible, don’t travel far. Don’t take overnight trips. Because if something happens, you need to be able to get home – stay united with your family. The battle is right behind us.
Sent by IMNA.
