Conscripts forcibly recruited by the Myanmar military junta are being used extensively on the frontline, with confidential military documents revealing they account for more than 70 percent of some deployment columns.
A July 2026 frontline deployment roster for Infantry Battalion No. 421 shows that out of 152 personnel deployed, only 11 were senior and junior officers and 22 were regular soldiers.
The remaining 109 were forcibly drafted, new soldiers.
The documents were obtained through Captain Zin Yaw, a military officer who joined the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM).
Captain Zin Yaw noted that these figures highlight a severe shortage of regular troops within the junta's armed forces.
“They are facing a critical shortage of regular soldiers and are relying primarily on conscripts,” Zin Yaw said. “Regular officers serve in core units, while conscripts are assigned to flank positions and the dangerous frontlines. Over the past two years, the military has systematically expanded its reliance on these recruits.”
Following the 2021 coup, the junta suffered heavy losses as armed resistance expanded nationwide. After losing numerous battalion headquarters, key towns, and equipment, the regime enacted a compulsory military service law in 2024 to address its dwindling troop numbers.
Deserters and defectors report that approximately 5,000 recruits are drafted in each intake and sent to the frontlines after three months of training—and in some cases, after just a single month.
A conscript named Nay Lin, who defected to the Arakan Army (AA) in Rakhine State in 2025, described how recruits are treated as expendable:
“Whenever fighting broke out, the commander and his aides stood near the perimeter fence and ordered, ‘Shoot anyone who retreats.’ I personally saw the commander’s aide shoot and kill two soldiers who were retreating in front of me,” Nay Lin said.
Anti-junta allied forces have also published evidence showing conscripts being ordered into high-risk attacks with high mortality rates, alongside records of recruits killed or captured in action.
As draft evasion increases, the military has turned to more aggressive tactics, seizing young people from their homes at night, detaining civilians at checkpoints, and abducting bystanders on the street.
A human rights volunteer assisting forcibly recruited youth in Pyay, Bago Region, described the escalating crisis:
“There are no boundaries anymore. They break into homes and drag people away. By the time families go searching the next morning, the recruits have already been transferred out of local staging camps. Young people are terrified to step outside, and parents are left weeping at camp gates. Once someone is taken, it feels as if they are gone for good.”
