Myanmar junta officials have begun collecting the personal information of workers in industrial zones in preparation for a census and a general election next year, an industry management official said on Wednesday.
The military has promised to hold elections since shortly after it ousted an elected government in early 2021, triggering a civil war in which its troops are under growing pressure from pro-democracy fighters and ethnic minority guerrillas.
The collection of data at industrial zones in the city of Yangon has raised fears the information could also be used by officials enforcing a hugely unpopular conscription law.
“It’s so worrying to give out our information at a time like this,” said one worker in Yangon’s Hlaingtharya township who declined to be identified for safety reasons.
“They don’t care if you’re a woman or man, or your age, to recruit you for the military,” said the worker.
He said he had given information in 2023 for a smart identification card and workers were now being told they risked losing their jobs if they didn't give personal data.
“If we don’t want to, they said we can quit,” he said.
Radio Free Asia tried to call Kyaw Kyaw Lwin, director general of the junta’s Workshop and Labor Law Inspection Department, to ask about the data collection but he did not respond.
The generals who ousted a government led by Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021 aims to hold a staggered elections by November 2025, with voting likely to be impossible in large areas controlled by insurgents. A census is planned for this October.
Those fighting to end military rule including a shadow National Unity Government, or NUG, say an election will be a sham with Suu Kyi, by far Myanmar’s most popular politician, locked up along with hundreds of politicians and activists.
‘Increase attacks’
The NUG prime minister, Mahn Win Khaing Than, told a meeting on Tuesday, the junta was likely to launch new offensives before the election and pro-democracy forces had to go on the attack.
“The junta will do whatever they can,” he told a meeting of his cabinet.“We need to also increase our own attacks as much as possible while preparing politically.”
The data collection follows a recent junta announcement it was forming neighborhood and village-level supervision groups for "public security" and "anti-terrorist operations" to crack down on insurgent forces.
China, India and Thailand have offered to help with the election, hoping it can help end the war in their resource-rich neighbor.
An official with a junta industrial zone management committee said workers’ personal information must be submitted by Friday.
“It’s necessary to count the workers and send the lists to our committee, the council told us it was necessary for the census,” said the official at the management committee in Hlaingtharya, Yangon’s biggest industrial zone.
Some 80,000 workers from more than 700 factories in six industrial zones of Hlaingtharya have given their information, a labor activist estimated.
Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan and Mike Firn