Weekly Analysis: Young Men Increasingly Targeted in the Junta’s Illegal Forced Conscription Effort

February 17, 2025

February 2025 | Week Two

HURFOM: The military junta has lost significant gains and territory. Their response to their failing military strategy has been to increase airstrikes, which target civilians and have killed more than 107 people in January alone. The junta has also moved to increasing their abductions and arbitrary arrests of young men across the country, who are then forcibly enlisted and recruited into the regime without their consent.

In targeted areas of the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM), including Mon State, Karen State, and the Tanintharyi region, the junta’s grasp for control is evident in its forced recruitment tactics. For instance, the military has started conducting mandatory military training for university lecturers, teachers, and students at Mawlamyine University in Mon State as part of its broader conscription efforts.

According to propaganda reports controlled by the junta, the training program was launched on February 10 at Mawlamyine Education Degree College following the enactment of the Military Service Law. This initiative is a collaboration between universities and the junta, compelling university staff and students to undergo military training under the guise of “national defense awareness.”

The event was attended by Colonel Kyaw Swar Myint, Mon State’s Minister for Security and Border Affairs, who spoke on behalf of the Chief Minister. Other attendees included officials from the state government, high-ranking military officers from the Southeastern Regional Command, university rectors, vice-rectors, lecturers, and students.

The No. 3 University Training program, operating under the Office of the Commander-in-Chief of Defense, will oversee the training along with the Militia Group and the Border Guard Force (BGF).

For the 2024–2025 academic year, university lecturers, teachers, and students from Mawlamyine University are required to participate in the training. However, the junta has not yet disclosed the number of those enrolled. In the past, military training at universities was voluntary. Still, with the introduction of the Military Service Law, even those previously exempt—such as lecturers, teachers, and certain students—are now being made to join.

“There is a huge demand for military personnel, and this is just one of the junta’s strategies to funnel university students into conscription gradually. They are implementing various methods to force young people into military service,” a source close to the resistance movement said.

The junta insists that providing basic and advanced military training to university students will enhance their awareness of national defence and prepare them for future national duties.

According to the junta’s statement, university conscription programs will also take place in Naypyidaw, Taunggyi (Shan State), Mawlamyine (Mon State), Kamayut (Yangon Region), Pathein (Ayeyarwady Region), and Taungoo (Bago Region).

In further evidence of harrowing acts, newly conscripted junta soldiers have been forced to torch civilian homes and loot public property. About 70 percent of the junta’s forces currently on the front lines are new conscripts.

In the last two years, HURFOM has released two reports on forced conscription: Forced to Fight and Forced to Enlist.

Overview of Main Cases

Junta Troops Conduct Security Operations and Arrest Fishermen in Yebyu Township

Junta forces have been conducting extensive security operations across villages in Yebyu Township and Dawei District, including house-to-house searches and patrols, instilling fear among residents. During these operations, the military arrested fishermen and confiscated three fishing boats in Zar Dee village.

Residents reported that in the first and second weeks of February, numerous junta troops were deployed for so-called “clearing and security operations” in several village tracts along the Ye–Dawei highway and areas surrounding Kan Bauk Sub-town and Zar Dee village.

Junta Forces Burn Six Homes and Arrest a Civilian in Oaktu Village, Thayet Chaung Township, Dawei

In Thayet Chaung Township, Tanintharyi Region, junta troops raided Oaktu village, burning down at least six homes and arresting one civilian. The military column entered Oaktu village in the early hours of February 8, with around 70 soldiers advancing on foot. Later that afternoon, they set multiple houses on fire before leaving the area.

Before retreating, the junta troops forcibly took one resident with them, though his identity and whereabouts remain unknown.

More Than Eight Men Arrested in Myeik and Forced Into Military Conscription

Junta forces raided a slaughterhouse in Tat Pyin Ward, Myeik, Southern Tanintharyi Region, and arrested at least eight men, later sending them for military conscription.

On February 2, at 8:30 PM, approximately 25 junta troops, accompanied by the ward administrator, entered the slaughterhouse under the pretense of conducting an inspection.