Junta soldiers and police have joined forces to search for people who have been drafted for conscription into the army in downtown areas of Kyaikto Township in Mon State.
Junta soldiers have a list of the people who have been conscripted and since 7 August soldiers and police officers have stepped up their efforts to track down the people on the list in all of the six downtown wards of Kyaikto Town.
A Kyaikto resident said to KIC: “Soldiers and police are moving through each ward, searching for people on their lists. These lists contain detailed personal information, including names, fathers' names, and addresses of those set to be drafted. However, the number of people on the lists is so large that they can’t capture everyone. Even though they have addresses, they don’t know the exact locations of the houses where these individuals live. Some people have already fled after receiving advance notice.”
Following the junta’s announcement, in February 2024, that they were going to enforce the conscription law, the authorities have been conducting house-to-house searches for young people in the downtown wards of Kyaikto Town.
As a result, many youths temporarily fled their homes. Now that the situation has somewhat stabilised they have begun returning home and the soldiers have resumed searching for them.
Local media outlets reported at the end of May that the junta plans to abduct young men who are eligible for military service from their homes, whether or not they are on the conscription list, because the number of people who have been conscripted into the army from Mon State has not met the junta’s expectations.
It is unclear how many locals have been arrested in these most recent conscription drives in Kyaikto Township.
Most of the Mon State conscripts who could not avoid the draft have been sent to the Military Advanced Training Depot No. 4 (MATD-4) in Weakali Village, Thanbyuzayat Township, for military training. According to a report by the Burma Affairs and Conflict Study (BACS) about 400 men, were from Mon State were conscripted into the army in the first two conscription batches.
On 5 August the junta released photos approximately 150 newly conscripted men taking part in a ceremony at the beginning of their training at MATD - 4. They were the fourth batch of conscripts from Mon State.
