Read RFA coverage of this story in Burmese.
More than 40 soldiers fighting for Myanmar’s junta have defected to ethnic Karen insurgents since August, rebels said Wednesday, most of whom were forcibly recruited as part of the military regime’s conscription program.
The soldiers from the Aung Zay Ya military column surrendered to the People’s Defense Forces, or PDF, from the No. 31 Strategic Battalion under the Southern Military Command, who are allied with the Karen National Liberation Army, or KNLA, between Aug. 1 and Jan. 18, a PDF official told RFA Burmese.
“Recruited under the military service law from [the cities of] Mandalay and Taunggyi, many of them are new conscripts who were sent to reinforce the Aung Zay Ya column,” said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity due to security concerns.
“The total number of junta defectors has surpassed 40,” he said. “Each defector has reportedly received 500,000 kyats (US$240)” from the People’s Embrace, a group for defectors from junta security forces, he added.
The defections after the junta, which seized power in a February 2021 coup d’etat, 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.
RFA has received reports of youth arrests — particularly in Myanmar’s cities — that residents have termed “snatch and recruit” operations. They are seemingly covert, as the arresting officers operate at night, wearing plain clothes and driving private vehicles.
The junta has denied claims that it has issued an order to recruit new conscripts through illegal means like kidnapping.
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Military defectors told RFA that junta troops are running out of food and ammunition given that KNLA and PDF forces are jointly attacking and blocking off the military zone along the highway from Kayah state’s Kawkareik township to neighboring Kayin state’s Myawaddy township.
They said “many soldiers” stationed at junta camps are now hoping to defect, and will be connected with the People’s Embrace to help them find employment opportunities.
The Aung Zay Ya junta column has been fighting to retake the trade route between Kawkareik and Myawaddy for 10 days, but have failed to take control, rebel sources told RFA.
The junta has yet to issue any statement about the column’s casualties or its loss of camps, military convoys and ammunition.
Attempts by RFA to contact Col. Min Thu Kyaw, the junta’s Minister for Security and Border Affairs, for more information about the fighting along the highway and soldier defections went unanswered Wednesday.
Translated by Aung Naing. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.