The junta is sending newly drafted conscripts to the frontlines to fight the Arakan Army (AA) and reportedly executes any who attempt to retreat or flee.
Two junta soldiers who defected to the AA during the battle for the junta’s Natyaekan base, in the Rakhine Yoma Mountain Range area of Magway Region, said in an AA-released video that junta officers often shot deserters and conscripts who fled the frontline and later returned to the rear.
On the video, private Nay Lin Aung, one of the junta soldiers who defected to the AA said: “They [deserters] were often shot after the officers yelled at them asking why they’d retreated. I saw a friend of mine shot right in front of me, his head was blown off. We were terrified when we saw things like that. That fear kept us from refusing when they sent us to the most dangerous points on the frontline.”
Nay Lin Aung was living in Mandalay Region's Chan Mya Tharzi Township, when he was forcibly conscripted. After two months of basic training and two weeks of advanced training, the junta assigned him to Infantry Battalion (IB) 79 under Light Infantry Division (LID) 99. However, he spent only a week there before being sent to the frontline base at Natyaekan.
Natyaekan is a strategically important anti-aircraft artillery base in the Rakhine Yoma Mountains in Magway Region, about 10 miles (16km) from the border with Arakan State, on the road that goes from Gwa Town in Arakan State to Padan Village in Magway Region’s Ngape Township. The base is about 15 miles from Padan Village in Ngape Township.
Aung Thet Tun, the second soldier in the AA video who also deserted from the Natyaekan base, had been forcibly drafted by junta-appointed ward administrators from his hometown. The first time he tried to desert from the junta army he was caught and detained for two months before being sent to the Natyaekan base. He said that some junta soldiers had self-harmed after learning that they would be sent to the Natyaekan base in an attempt to avoid being sent there.
He said to DMG: “Some of them, knowing they wouldn’t be able to escape even if they fled, shot themselves. They got wounded, but their officers didn’t help them get treated, they just left them injured. They’d either die from their wounds or, if they survived, they’d often end up in prison.”
The junta is sending reinforcements to the Natyaekan base in an attempt to stop it falling into resistance hands, but it has been suffering heavy casualties and many desertions there, according to junta army deserters who have defected to the AA.
Facing severe manpower shortages, the junta has, so far, carried out 15 rounds of conscription nationwide since it started implementing the conscription law in February 2024.
