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Getty Images / Authorities in Myanmar have been ordered to aggressively fulfil the military's recruitment quotas, leading to corruption, extortion and abductions You do not stay out after dark if you're young and able-bodied in Hpa-An, the capital of Myanmar's southern Karen state. In recent months this has become conventional wisdom. But Zaw Min has no choice. "I worry, but I have to go out to work," says the 26-year-old tuk tuk driver, who asked that his real name be omitted out of fear for his safety. "My family call me all the time and remind me not to drive passengers too far; to be careful who I take as a passenger... I have to be vigilant all the time. "People are panicked and frightened," he explains. "Some people I know have been taken." Locals say plain-clothed members and supporters of the Myanmar junta have been roaming the streets of Hpa-An, arbitrarily arresting people in their teens, 20s and 30s and forcing them into military service. According to leaked documents seen by BBC Burmese, authorities have been ordered to aggressively fulfil the military's recruitment quotas across jurisdictions, bolstering the junta's ranks as it endures a war of attrition against ethnic militias, pro-democracy groups and civilian-led resistance movements. Zaw Min is the only one among his siblings who is at the age of recruitment. Many other "kids" his age have fled, he says – to Thailand, or the homes of relatives further afield. Those who remain are often under strict instructions from their parents: be home before dusk. Myanmar has been locked in a bloody civil war since February 2021, when its own military launched a coup d'etat and ousted democratically elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Three years later, following a string of humiliating losses, plummeting morale and soaring rates of desertion, the junta enacted a mandatory conscription law that required all men aged 18 to 35 and women aged 18 to 27 to serve at least two years under military command. Those who refuse face up to five years in prison. The enactment of the law "represents one of the most severe and impactful actions taken against the entire civilian population since the military coup", according to Maj Naung Yoe, military affairs official at the Myanmar Defense and Security Institute (MDSI) and a former military officer who defected and joined the anti-coup Civil Disobedience Movement. Telegram/@pyithusitt / An estimated 100,000 young recruits have been conscriptedby the junta since early 2024 Hpa-An is the latest to be caught in a dragnet that's already ensnared an estimated 100,000 young recruits over the past two-and-a-half years – many of them via coercion, extortion and abductions. "Security forces track young people's movements to arrest them, force them into service under the pretext of statutory military eligibility, extort money through threats of detention, and arrest individuals during guest-list inspections," Naung Yoe says. The BBC contacted the Myanmar government's Central Body for Summoning People's Military Servants regarding incidents mentioned in this story, including the forced recruitment of conscripts and reports of abductions allegedly carried out in recent months. They said they had no comment on the matter. With the mandatory conscription law, the junta has established a human supply chain to sustain its armed forces. And it appears to have worked. Observers note that reinforcements have played a critical role in helping the regime claw back more territory. In many parts of Myanmar, the resistance is now on the back foot. The war, though, is far from over. And as more youths evade conscription – either to join the resistance or simply avoid armed conflict against their fellow countrymen – the junta's recruitment methods have become ever more extreme. International rights groups such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Fortify Rights say Myanmar's military is abducting civilians and forcing them into military service. In July, open-source research organisation Myanmar Witness revealed that they had analysed hundreds of missing-person advertisements collected from Facebook between 2021 and 2025. Researchers found that missing person notices for January rose from four in 2021, pre-coup, to 82 in 2025, post-conscription law. "In practice, much of [the Myanmar military's] recruitment appears to be carried out through detention, coercion, and disappearance rather than formal call-up, and often without notice to families," they concluded. Men and boys constituted the majority of reported missing persons. Watch: BBC goes into jungle with Myanmar's civil war rebels "They are spreading rumours all over the neighbourhood that I sold my husband." Ma Moe San Pan sobs the words through gulps of air. She is sitting in her kitchen, at home in Yangon, where on the morning of 8 May 2025 she saw her 33-year-old husband Phyo Wai for the last time. "We had an argument, and afterwards he left home," she recalls."I was upset and told my cousin about what had happened." Ma Moe San Pan's cousin worked at the local ward administration office, and she asked him to bring her husband back. It was two days later that Phyo Wai called her, from a military recruitment centre on the other side of the city. The cousin had taken him to the ward office which had sold him on to another ward for 4 million kyats ($900; £680) to fill that ward's recruitment quota, Ma Moe San Pan says. The BBC was unable to reach Ma Moe San Pan's cousin. In a desperate attempt to bring him back, Ma Moe San Pan was then scammed out of 4.5 million kyats by strangers who falsely promised his release. U Maung Maung Lwin, the administrator of the ward to which Phyo Wai was taken, later admitted to the BBC that he had played a role in sending him to the military recruitment authorities. When asked about allegations that individuals were being conscripted outside their home township, he said transfers from other townships do occur when local quotas can

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  • 发布时间：2026/10/11 06:13:08