Yangon, Mandalay Deserted After Dark as Myanmar Junta Hunts for Conscripts. Junta has intensified forcible conscription to replenish its ranks amid a series of battlefield defeats. Severe setbacks, especially in Rakhine and Kachin states, have seen several hundred regime troops captured or killed, including those pressganged under new conscription law.
Fear is now mounting more young men will be snatched for military training & rapidly dispatched to war zones, junta forces are struggling badly. In Rakhine State, Arakan Army (AA) seized Maungdaw Township & Border Guard Police Battalion No. 5 on Dec 8, securing full control over Myanmar’s 270-km border with Bangladesh.
AA has now seized 12 of Rakhine’s 17 townships, as well as Paletwa Township in neighboring Chin State as junta is desperate to increase troop numbers to defend its few remaining Rakhine strongholds as AA’s relentless advance. New conscripts pick up military equipment at junta camp in Nov. / Telegram/People’s Militia Group. In Kachin State, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) & allies have gained partial or full control in 12 of the 18 townships are attacking the strategic town of Bhamo.
Embattled junta military & admin bodies have responded by escalating efforts to fill growing gaps in both frontline & rearward positions.
The junta has called up eight batches of conscripts, totaling around 30,000 men, since launching the conscription process in March. Regime admin, military, & police are now rounding up young people in territory they control for the upcoming 9th & 10th batches of training. Major cities like Yangon & Mandalay remain hotspots for junta’s forcible recruitment. At around 11 pm on Dec 10, soldiers & police snatched 8-men aged 25-27 off the street in U San Pe ward of Thingangyun Township, Yangon.
A 52-year-old aunt of one of victims recounted the incident. “4-young men, including three Muslim men, were sitting on street with two trucks of troops & a police car arrived. Without saying anything, security forces grabbed them and threw them into their vehicles.” Junta snatch squads then raided three other houses in the ward, arresting four more young men. They informed the families that men were being conscripted, there was nothing families could do to get them back, according to residents.
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