Myanmar youth look to flee conscription or join armed rebels fighting junta: ‘the army is losing control’

“Join us,” John Paw, 27, of the Karenni Nationalities Defence Force (KNDF), one of the largest PDFs in Myanmar that supports local ethnic armed groups, told This Week in Asia.

In a truck crammed with KNDF fighters returning along a dusty road from a recent raid on a military base in Shardaw town, Karenni State, John Paw laid out the challenges of restoring local governance and the economy in areas where the junta’s writ no longer extends.

“We have many needs, not just for the fighting in defence, but from agriculture to administration, we have so many things to build together and we need your help,” he said.

“That’s why I want to ask you to join our People Defence Forces.”

The junta says it wants 60,000 new recruits to sign up each year – starting with 5,000 every month from April. Anyone who dodges the draft faces up to five years in jail.

For the nearly 14 million people who are eligible for conscription, it’s a case of fight or flight.

Mu Mu, a 23-year-old professional in Yangon, didn’t hesitate to make her decision as soon as the conscription order was announced.

“I want to leave ASAP,” she told This Week in Asia, using a pseudonym to avoid alerting the military. But time is running out to flee.

“They might stop people leaving soon,” Mu Mu said. “This conscription law shows that the army is losing control in many parts of the country, the regime is nearing the end. But first they will make the ordinary people carry the consequences. Either I get out or I join the PDFs.”

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‘Our future is fading’: Myanmar youth dodge compulsory military service by fleeing to Thailand

Thailand, a country that does not have an asylum system for the protection of refugees, is under pressure to consider formalising entry ahead of the expected