‘We have the momentum’: Myanmar’s youth take up arms against junta, fleeing conscription order

Thousands have joined People’s Defence Forces (PDFs) since a junta decree in February made all men and women over 18 years of age eligible for conscription to fight their own people.

But taking on the junta puts the fighters’ families who remain at home in peril, so the new recruits give themselves noms de guerre – aliases for their time spent in military training and combat.

In Dawei, southeastern Myanmar, hundreds have joined the local PDF, which is welcoming them despite having too few guns.

Brothers “P1” and “P2” received a letter in March at their home in Dawei ordering them to sign up and serve the junta, with their next steps simplified by the prospect of having to fight for a regime they loathe.

“We made contact with the PDF and left,” said P1, who is 26. “I refuse to violate or kill our people. I will only fight the military.”

The junta order says all men aged 18 to 35 and women aged 18 to 27 must serve for up to two years, putting roughly 14 million people – over a quarter of Myanmar’s population – in line for being called up.

The outlook is set to worsen for the military, after guerillas from the Karen ethnic minority on Thursday claimed to have captured the last of the army’s outposts in Myawaddy township in eastern Myanmar, virtually clearing the way for them to take over the town of Myawaddy, a major crossing point for trade with Thailand.

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

Running from conscription, enraged by a military that has sent the country spiralling into violent chaos and boosted by the sudden and unexpected scent of victory, Myanmar’s youth have chosen to either flee the country or gather in forests and join the fight.

Brothers P1 and P2 are