Authorities loyal to Myanmar’s junta arrested around 250 youths in four major cities in December, RFA Burmese has learned, and residents say they are deliberately targeting young people to force them to join the military.
If their suspicions are correct, it would be just the latest example of the junta finding creative ways to conscript citizens as it struggles to maintain control over the country it seized in a February 2021 coup.
The arrests come about seven months after the junta began conscripting young people to shore up its dwindling military ranks amid mounting battlefield losses. A law requires men aged 18-35 and women aged 18-27 to serve a minimum of two years, and young people have been fleeing the country ever since.
Data collected by RFA showed a spike in youth arrests in Yangon, Mandalay, Naypyitaw and Bago in December. The operations have been described by residents as “snatch and recruit,” and are seemingly covert, as the arresting officers operate at night, wearing plain clothes and driving private vehicles.
A resident of Mandalay, who like all unnamed sources in this report requested anonymity for safety reasons, said that the police and military target people on motorbikes, implying that they are focusing on young people, who are more likely to ride the cheaper vehicles.
He told RFA Burmese that authorities were targeting a specific area of 62nd street adjacent to the University of Nursing, an area frequented by young people, and other downtown areas, arresting around 80 people last month.
Because people fear being arrested, the streets are now clear of nighttime foot traffic, he said.
Meanwhile in Myanmar’s largest city, Yangon, there were about 90 arrests, mostly of men, over the same period, a resident there told RFA.
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“Even though no curfew has been officially imposed, nobody dares to go out at night anymore,” he said. ”If there are parties or festivals, and young people gather, they will be arrested."
But the resident said that authorities appear willing to take people of middle age to meet conscription quotas.
“It used to be that they targeted people between 18 and 35, but now they are targeting people ... as old as 45,” he said.
In Bago region, 70 people were taken in. A resident there said that it had previously been possible for arrestees to bribe their way out of conscription, but that’s not the case anymore. The arrests have resulted in empty streets, just like in Mandalay and Yangon.
“In the past, you would see people out until 8 p.m. but now, by 7 or 8, very few young people remain,” he said. “The only ones out are those collecting plastic, catching rats, or hunting for eels [to earn a living].”
Meanwhile, in the capital Naypyitaw, residents said that more than 20 young people were arrested in December after the junta began implementing stricter public security measures, including more officers on patrol and more frequent random searches.
RFA attempted to contact junta spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun for comment on the increased arrests of young people, but he did not respond.
An official from the Central Body for Summoning People’s Military Servants said that there is no order to recruit new conscripts through illegal means like kidnapping.
“We have not issued any such orders,” the official said. “All regions and states are required to carry out calls for service as outlined in the People’s Military Service Law.”
The official said that if illegal methods of recruitment happen, they should be reported to the Central Body, which would then investigate the issue.
According to official recruitment statistics, 40,000 people have been called up for military service at a rate of 5,000 to 8,000 per week. These statistics do not include those who have been conscripted by illegal means.
A lawyer in Yangon, said snatch and recruit operations are against the law.
“The conscription law already clearly outlines who can be called up for military service, what needs to be done, and when to serve,” he said. “It is all clearly stated, and the steps are well-defined.”
He said that the original purpose of the People’s Military Service Law, which was put in place by the previous junta in 2010, was not to fight against one’s own people, but to defend against foreign aggression.
Some of the young men who were forcibly recruited by the junta for military service have died in battles with anti-junta forces, while others have fled to join the fight against the military.
Translated by Kalyar Lwin. Edited by Eugene Whong.