Its forces are depleted and Myanmar's junta says it will enforce military conscription

For more than three years, Myanmar's largest cities have been under the unyielding grip of the military junta. But the streets of places like Yangon were unusually quiet on Monday evening as a sense of fear swept the country.

Residents had a new reason to avoid contact with patrols: last weekend the regime said it was revoking a decades-old law to start enlisting young men and women into the army, sparking alarm across the country.

The regime's forces have been depleted in recent months as they battle a growing insurgency by pro-democracy rebels and armed ethnic groups. The move to conscription to strengthen the ranks of the armed forces suggested that the junta was on the defensive and growing desperate.

But while the rebels pose the most widespread challenge yet to regime rule, it remains to be seen whether they can topple the military, which has successfully suppressed many regional uprisings in recent decades.

On Tuesday, reports came from across the country that young men had been arrested by soldiers overnight. Even before conscription was imposed, the military was known to kidnap young men and force them into service.

Critics of the regime said new conscripts were unlikely to be given weapons and could instead be forced to serve as porters carrying supplies and ammunition on the battlefield. The military has a long history of using porters as human shields by forcing them to walk ahead of troops toward suspected minefields or possible ambushes.

“When I heard the news, I felt like an elephant had stepped on my head,” said Daw Thin Han, 45, who has three children in military service. “I panic if a military truck will arrive in front of my house and take my children to the front line.”

The junta announced the start of conscription on Saturday evening, saying it was allowed by a law that has been on the books since 1959 but never invoked during half a century of military rule.

“National defense is not the sole responsibility of the soldier,” General Zaw Min Tun, the military spokesman, said in justifying the order. “I would ask everyone to serve with pride and joy.”

Under the order, which is officially called the “People's Military Service Law,” men aged 18 to 35 and women aged 18 to 27 could be required to serve for at least two years. For professionals, such as doctors, nurses and engineers, the age range is even higher: up to 35 years for women and up to 45 years for men, with a mandatory service of up to three years. Anyone who refuses to serve faces up to five years in prison.

A father in Mandalay, U Myo Kyaw, said Tuesday he feared his 22-year-old son would be forced into military service after a witness saw him at gunpoint by soldiers near their home early Monday evening.

After his son did not return, Mr Myo Kyaw said he and his wife searched everywhere, including police stations, but found no trace of him.

“My wife and I didn't meet anyone else on the road, only stray dogs,” he said. “My heart aches with fear because he is my only son. I pray that I will not witness my son being conscripted into the military.”

On Monday, Ms. Thin Han, the mother of three military-age children, four plainclothes men and her neighborhood administrator — a local official appointed by the regime — said they went to every house on her street in Mandalay and took down the names and ages. of every resident. At her home, she said, a man circled the names of each of her children as he wrote them down in his notebook.

“I now live in constant fear,” she said.

Losses and defections on the battlefield have taken their toll on the military, especially in recent months.

The shadow civilian national unity government, led by ethnic leaders and deposed elected officials, says its forces have captured hundreds of military outposts and 41 towns and villages in northern Myanmar since late October. The rebels claim to control more than half of the country's territory, but the army still controls major cities.

“The start of conscription reflects the dire situation of the military, which has suffered defeat on several fronts and is struggling to recruit new soldiers,” said U Kyee Myint, a lawyer and political activist who is now in hiding. “This shows the desperation of the junta.”

He noted that wealthier people could avoid conscription by paying bribes, making conscription an effective money-making operation for regime officials.

Several men and women of draft age who spoke to The New York Times said they would do whatever they could to avoid serving in the military, including joining the rebels to fight the regime to fight.

“I would rather risk my life in resistance than passively succumb to their tyranny,” said Ko Htet Aung Kyaw, 20, a student who has been involved in anti-junta protests since the coup on February 1, 2021. The junta's army is not intended to defend the country. It is solely about preserving the junta's power.”

A group calling itself People's Embrace, which says it has helped more than 5,000 soldiers defect, offered its help to new conscripts. “The People's Embrace team is always ready to help you escape as quickly as possible,” the group posted on Facebook.

Alice Htun, 21, who arrived in Minnesota in December to study art at Saint Paul College, said she would consider seeking political asylum in the United States if the junta was still in power when she completed her studies.

She has been exposed to the ruthlessness of the army for much of her life. Her grandfather was a political prisoner. Her uncle was injured when soldiers forced him to walk ahead of them in battle with supplies. Last year, her family's home in Shan State was riddled with bullets by soldiers fighting rebels. Her family has fled and her father is in hiding.

Now that they are conscripted, she worries that millions more people are vulnerable. She said, among other things, that students returning from abroad could be arrested at the airport upon arrival and placed in the army.

“The military's increasing repression has reached everyone's doorstep,” she said. “They will try to expand their power and oppress us in the most brutal way.”