Myanmar authorities arrest 475 young people in Yangon in January: group

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Myanmar junta authorities arrested nearly 500 young people in the biggest city of Yangon in January for conscription into the military and other reasons, a pro-democracy monitoring group said on Wednesday.

Young people have been at the forefront of opposition to the junta that seized power four years ago, ending a decade of tentative reform that had given the public hope for an end to decades of stifling military rule.

The junta, facing a growing insurgency since its coup, enforced a conscription law in early 2024 targeting men aged 18 to 35 to make up for heavy losses in battles against allied pro-democracy and ethnic minority guerrilla groups.

But many young people are fleeing or finding other ways to dodge the draft leading to mass arrests by military officials to fill the ranks.

“The junta is arresting people for many reasons, including public conscription – 475 have been captured,” said a member of an anti-junta group called the Rangoon Scout Network, which monitors political action in the former capital of Yangon.

“They’re always waiting to arrest people. To be released, you have to pay a bribe of between 1 and 1.3 million kyat (US$475-$620). If you can’t pay, you’re conscripted.”

RFA tried to telephone the Yangon region’s junta spokesperson, Htay Aung, to ask about the situation but he did not respond.

The member of the Rangoon Scout Network, which has no connection with the global Scout Movement, did not say how many of those detained in January were men and how many were female.

It said 58 of them had been detained and then released but there was no word on the others.

According to data compiled by the network and allied groups, 241 of those arrested in January were simply chased down on the street in city neighborhoods such as North Dagon, Insein, Tamwe, Thingangyun and Ahlon.

Among the others, 77 were arrested for violating guestlist registration rules, aimed at tracking where people stay, 58 were picked during spot check and 51 of those grabbed had outstanding warrants, the network said.

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The pro-democracy parallel government in exile, the National Unity Government, said the junta had trained nine classes of conscripts, or 40,000 people in all. Late last month, members of the public said the junta had begun initial steps to draft women for active military service.

The military has faced significant setbacks in fighting that has engulfed townships across the country over the past year or more; thousands of people have been killed and some 3.5 million have been displaced.

The military also wants to expand its area of control in the run-up to an election, expected late this year, that the generals hope will improve their legitimacy.

Anti-junta groups say an election organized by the military will be a sham.

Myanmar has endured strict isolationist military rule since 1962, apart from a decade of reform when democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi won two elections and many people dared hope that their country was at last taking its place in vibrant Southeast Asia as a stable democracy.

The military’s ousting of Suu Kyi’s government on Feb. 1, 2021, on what were widely derided as bogus accusations of electoral fraud, crushed those hopes.

Translated by Kiana Duncan. Edited by RFA Staff.