Richard BBM has learned that due to the military junta’s arrests of porters day and night across the country, young people from the lower classes are no longer able to work. Even though they do not want to serve in the military junta, they are forced to attend military training courses run by the military junta, even though their parents have signed them up to do so in order to survive.
A person close to the family told BBM that due to the military junta’s arrests of porters day and night in Phyu Township, Bago Region, young people are no longer able to work and are forced to enlist in the military by their parents, who are greedy for the 5,000,000 or 10,000,000 kyats the military junta offers them.
“Even my cousin went in. It wasn’t to support the military junta. We couldn’t even go out to find food or fish, so we just took the 5,000,000 or 10,000,000 kyats they gave us and went in. I tried to persuade them, but they wouldn’t let us,”
a family member told BBM. In addition, in Paya Dauk Village Tract, Mawkyun Township, Ayeyarwady Division, the administrator, Saw Say Moo, is threatening to pay 60,000 kyats per month if the village does not want to serve in the military,BBM has learned.
“In the Paya Dauk Village Tract, Mawkyun Township. They’ve been saying they’re going to collect money for a long time. They just started collecting it last month,”
a local told BBM. In Chan Aye Thar Zan West, Mandalay Region, a resident told BBM that even today, ward administrators are demanding that those who do not wish to perform military service within a month of the Military Junta’s promulgation of the Civil Service Law on February 10, 2024, pay 200,000 kyats per month.
“Not long after the military service law was passed, they called young people’s homes to have meetings. Should we draw lots? Should we replace them? If we want to replace them, we have to pay 200,000 kyats a month. How can we afford it? Their lives are in the palm of our hands. We have to pay,”
a local told BBM. The military junta has been threatening to force the public to join the war for a year and a half now, as it has opened multiple fronts across the country and is running out of manpower.
