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Several accounts of new recruits fleeing from military training sites in central Magway and Bago regions show that the junta’s blanket conscription order continues to be hugely unpopular among Myanmar’s young people, several told Radio Free Asia.
In April, the junta began implementing a conscription law as a way of shoring up its dwindling ranks amid mounting losses to rebel groups.
Under the mandatory military service law, men aged 18 to 35 and women aged 18 to 27 must serve a minimum of two years in the military. Young people have been looking for ways to leave the country ever since.
Many new recruits have been sent for training after being detained at gunpoint by junta troops. Recruits face torture or execution if they are caught trying to escape.
A total of 11 new recruits in Magway region have run off from their training in recent weeks, according to escapees and those who helped them.
A young man from Magway’s Yenangyaung township told RFA that he was arrested at gunpoint by junta soldiers after he left his house on the morning of July 9. About 30 people were also detained in the township for military recruitment on the same day, he said, requesting anonymity for security purposes.
He said he was eventually sent to the No. 7 military training school in Taungdwingyi town, where he finally got the chance to escape in late August.
“On a day when it was raining heavily, we got an opportunity to run away as soon as we found a small exit that evening,” he said.
‘Training photos went viral’
Another escapee said recruits weren’t fed properly during the training course and were told by military officers that China has been supporting the anti-junta People’s Defense Forces, or PDFs.
“PDFs are receiving bribes from China for killing, they said. So, PDFs are doing such an anarchy. Actually, the junta is persuading the newly recruits to hate the PDFs,” the escapee said.
In the neighboring Bago region, a young man who recently fled from military training told RFA that living under the junta had become unbearable.
“We made the decision with our own sense whether they are good or bad, who is good or bad,” he said. “We can’t die for them. So, we made the decision to run away.”
RFA was unable to contact Social Affairs Minister Myo Myint, the junta’s spokesman for Magway region, for comment on the recent escapes.
A young man from Bago’s Paungte township said he fled military service after he was sent to Shan state following a brief and insufficient training period. There were some 600 young people from the Bago region in his training cohort, he said.
“We were given just one day of training on how to set up the MA-1 gun,” he said. “We could fire only five shots in the training.”
Junta-backed media outlets frequently publish photos of new recruits and documentary videos from training courses.
“Our training photos went viral online,” the young man said.
Sent to the frontlines
No one from the Bago region has deserted from military training, according to Tin Oo, the junta’s economic affairs minister and spokesman for the region.
“Some people are dividing the government (junta regime) and the public by spreading rumors that young people are forcibly recruited,” he told RFA.
“There was also some news that the recruits have fled from the training,” he said. “Actually, these rumors are not true. We are managing the training course very flexibly and the recruits are also happy at the training.”
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There are at least 21,000 recruits in 23 military training schools across Myanmar, according to an Oct. 19 report from the Burmese Affairs and Conflict Studies Group, an independent research group,
The report included evidence that those who recently completed training courses were sent to frontlines in Shan and Rakhine states, where fighting has been fierce.
Some new recruits were killed during fighting for Lashio, which was captured by insurgents in August and has recently been the focus of a junta counteroffensive, the report said.
Translated by Aung Naing. Edited by Matt Reed.