Struggling Myanmar junta taps conscripts
Men aged 18 to 35 and women aged 18 to 27 will serve in the army for at least two years
YANGON (AFP) — Myanmar’s junta is enforcing a law allowing the military to summon all men aged 18 to 35 and women aged 18 to 27 to serve for at least two years, it said on Saturday, as it struggles to crush opposition to its 2021 coup.
The junta “issued the notification of the effectiveness of People’s Military Service Law starting from February 10th, 2024,” the junta’s information team said in a statement.
The law was authored by a previous junta in 2010 but was never brought into force.
Saturday’s statement did not give further details but said the junta’s defense ministry would “release necessary bylaws, procedures, announcements orders, notifications and instructions.”
It did not give details on how those called up would be expected to serve.
The junta has previously said it is taking measures to arm pro-military militias as it battles opponents across the country.
A “national military service system involving all people is essential because of the situation happening in our country,” junta spokesperson Zaw Min Tun said in an audio message released by the information team.
Under the former law the age bracket for “skilled” men and women was 18 to 45 years and 18 to 35 years respectively, although details on “skilled” were left vague.
That law also had a stipulation that during a state of emergency, the terms of service can be extended up to five years and those ignoring summons to serve can be jailed for the same period.
The Myanmar junta announced a state of emergency when it seized power in February 2021, with the army recently extending it for a further six months.
The military takeover ended a 10-year experiment with democracy and sparked mass protests and a crackdown on dissent that killed more than 4,500 people and saw the arrest of 26,000, according to a local monitoring group.
Since the coup, pro-democracy “People’s Defense Forces” have enlisted tens of thousands of young recruits and are taking the fight to the junta across swathes of the country.