‘They have lists of everyone’s names’: Myanmar conscription law unleashes wave of fear

GENOCIDE WATCH
By Rebecca Ratcliffe and Aung Naing Soe
Date : 11th March'2025 

Potential conscripts fear they could be forced to carry out atrocities or be used as human shields by the military 

Military officers on Armed Forces Day in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, 27 March 2023. Many in Myanmar have expressed alarm at the conscription law. Photograph: Aung Shine Oo/AP

 

Passport offices and embassies in Myanmar have been flooded with applications, with a queue of more than a thousand people on a single day trying to secure a visa for neighbouring Thailand. Helplines offering advice on ways to leave the country – how to manage checkpoints, what documents are needed – have been inundated.

Few Places in Myanmar Still Safe for Junta Boss to Visit

The Irrawaddy
December 15, 2023

Here is the grim reality for Myanmar junta chief Min Aungla Hing: his freedom of movement is now severely restricted.

Yes, you read that right. He can no longer travel freely across the country, as he did before. The number of areas he can safely access has shrunk as the war against his rule by the country’s ethnic armed groups and their allied resistance forces has spread to most part of the country.

AA rescues 104 more Pauk Taw locals from the clutches of junta forces

Narinjara
Date: 24 November 2023 

The Arakan Army (AA) has declared that the second batch of Pauk Taw residents (comprising 104 individuals), who were kidnapped and used as human shields by the junta forces, were rescued.

ASEAN ‘disappointed’ with Myanmar military’s peace commitment

Aljazeera
4 Oct 2021

Indonesia FM says country’s military rulers have made no significant progress in implementing the group’s peace road map.

The military leader has pledged to hold fresh elections in two years and cooperate with ASEAN on finding a political solution. [Reuters]

Myanmar’s military has made no significant progress in implementing a Southeast Asian roadmap for peace following their coup or given any feedback on the work of a regional envoy in the country, Indonesia’s foreign minister has said.

China Doesn’t Want Myanmar’s NLD Dissolved: Informed Sources

The Irrawaddy

27 August 2021

Chinese President Xi Jinping (right) and Myanmar’s detained State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi (left) at the launch ceremony for events to mark the 70th anniversary of China-Myanmar diplomatic relations in Naypyitaw in January 2020. / Myanmar State Counselor’s Office

China has voiced concern over the Myanmar military regime’s plan to dissolve the National League for Democracy (NLD), the party that won the junta-annulled 2020 general election in a landslide, several informed sources told The Irrawaddy. Chinese officials have conveyed to the regime’s leaders Beijing’s message that it wants to see the NLD continue to exist as a political party, they said.

Politicians close to the NLD and several China-Myanmar watchers said the Chinese recently told Myanmar officials that China will continue to support Myanmar and maintain border trade and infrastructure projects on one condition: that the junta keeps the NLD alive.

Myanmar diplomats in US and Switzerland refuse to return home after criticising military junta

South China Morning Post

29 Jun, 2021

• Kyaw Moe Tun, Myanmar’s ambassador to the UN, said the 11 diplomats had joined the civil disobedience movement following the Feburary 1 coup
• ‘The military [has] already charged me high treason … So I definitely cannot go back [to Myanmar],’ he said

Anti-coup protesters march in Pabedan township near Yangon. Photo: AP

Eleven Myanmar diplomats in the United States and Switzerland are creating a united front as they seek to remain in their host countries in protest against the country’s military junta, refusing to return home, the country’s ambassador to the United Nations said on Monday.

Myanmar ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun said the 11 are among around 20 diplomats in seven countries who have joined the civil disobedience movement amid the continued use of violence against protesters by Myanmar security forces since the February 1 military coup.

Could Japan draw Myanmar's military junta chief to a UN peace initiative?

THE HILL

BY CHARLES CRABTREE,
OPINION CONTRIBUTOR
06/24/21

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY CONTRIBUTORS ARE THEIR OWN AND NOT THE VIEW OF THE HILL

© Getty Images

What should the Japanese government do about Myanmar? Since the military junta under commander in chief Min Aung Hlaing ousted democratically-elected government leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Feb. 1, violence has erupted across the Southeast Asian nation. The new Tatmadaw regime has killed over 800 people, reportedly arrested more than 80 journalists, and detained thousands more politicians, pro-democracy protesters and human rights defenders without due process. In response to this and other abuses, mass protests have erupted across the country, often inciting further violence by state security forces.

Geopolitics and the uncertain future of Rohingyas

prothomalo

Opinion
M Sakhawat Hossain
Published: 14 Jun 2021, 

Rohingya exodus from their homeland, making their way to Bangladesh Reuters

After the military coup in Myanmar, there had been talk of taking back the 1.1 million (11 lakh) or so Rohingyas who had been driven out of Rakhine (Arakan) and had taken shelter in Bangladesh. Such sentiment is no longer being heard. In fact, the military junta in Myanmar is speaking in quite the opposite tone. Their spokesperson recently said that the Rohingya issue is not on their priority list. This is because of pressure from the Rakhine nationalist leaders there.

Military junta removes two dissident diplomats stationed in Japan

AsiaNews.it
Francis Khoo Thwe
05/20/2021

Critics of the violence against the democratic opposition, the two envoys asked the Japanese government for help. Japanese companies present in Myanmar say Tokyo is too "weak" with the Burmese generals. The military has recalled about 100 rebel diplomats to their homeland since the coup.

Yangon (AsiaNews) - The military junta has removed two diplomats stationed at the embassy in Tokyo. The two envoys boycotted the mission's activities in protest against the coup that overthrew the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the National League for Democracy in February.

Their removal was reported this morning by Kyodo News, citing Burmese diplomatic sources.

The regime of General Min Aung Hlaing already sacked the ambassador to the United Nations in February, and last month dismissed the envoy to London.

Myanmar: UN rights experts urge business ‘to take a stand’ against military junta

U.N News
12 May 2021
Peace and Security

United Nations independent rights experts on Wednesday urged businesses in Myanmar to uphold their human rights responsibilities and apply pressure on the military junta to halt grave human rights violations against its own people.

While some businesses have reiterated their public support for the rule of law and human rights, and cut ties with the junta in the aftermath of the 1 February coup, many continue to engage in business with the military as if nothing has happened, Tom Andrews, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, and members of the Working Group on Business and Human Rights, said in a news release.

Burmese Scholar: Military Junta Using Terror Against “Entire Population” to Keep Power After Coup

DEMOCRACY NOW
MARCH 01, 2021
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TOPICS

Burma Protests Military

GUESTS
Maung Zarni
Burmese scholar, dissident and human rights activist.

LINKS
Maung Zarni on Twitter
Forces of Renewal for Southeast Asia (FORSEA)

In Burma, mass protests continue after at least 18 people were killed in anti-coup protests, marking the deadliest day since the February 1 military coup which deposed and detained de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Police fired live ammunition into crowds as Burmese forces steadily escalated their crackdown. One local group says 1,000 people were arrested, including journalists and medical professionals. “The coup group and the entire security sector … have essentially terrorized the entire population,” says Maung Zarni, a Burmese scholar, dissident and human rights activist. “I have seen absolutely nothing like what is happening.”