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

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.

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Weekly Analysis: Women and Children Killed in Escalating Attacks by the Military Junta

Across Burma, civilians are facing ongoing threats to their safety and security. Women, children, and the elderly are particularly vulnerable, and the escalating offensives and attacks by the junta put them at greater risk. In targeted areas of the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM), including Mon State, Karen State, and the Tanintharyi region, several incidents of assaults by the junta were reported this week, resulting in the deaths and injuries of multiple women and children.

In Ye Township, Mon State, three women, including two internally displaced persons (IDPs), were injured when junta troops indiscriminately fired heavy artillery into Wapathae Village, Baelamu Village Tract, despite no active fighting in the area. On the night of January 24, troops from the Junta’s Artillery Regiment No. 317, based in Ye Township, launched five artillery shells into Wapathae Village. The shells exploded inside the village, injuring:

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Weekly Analysis: Drone Attacks and Artillery Shelling Target Civilians in Southeastern Burma

Civilians in Burma have been forced to endure endless attacks by the military junta. Communities that have long been affected by the junta’s atrocities are living in constant fear. In targeted areas of Mon State, Karen State, and the Tanintharyi region, the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) has documented debilitating circumstances that continue to threaten and undermine the safety of local people.

The junta’s ongoing artillery shelling and drone strikes in Kyaik Hto and Bilin townships, Mon State, have left residents living in constant fear. Since the second week of January 2025, the intensified attacks have caused injuries, destroyed homes, and forced villagers to either flee or seek protection in makeshift bomb shelters.

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Weekly Analysis: Human Rights Situation in Mon State, Karen State and Tanintharyi Region

Landmines Pose Growing Risk to the Safety and Security of Civilians in Southeastern Burma

Landmine detonations have caused deaths and injuries for many civilians in Burma. They are hidden and are often discovered before it is too late, causing extreme pain and trauma to victims. Since the attempted coup, there has been a significant rise in landmine incidents in Burma. According to UNICEF, 32% of landmine casualties in early 2024 were children.

In target areas of the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM), including Mon State, Karen State, and the Tanintharyi region, the presence of landmines has hindered civilian livelihoods and daily lives.

On January 1st, a displaced man from Chaung Hna Pauk village, Tenasserim Township, attempted to return home but was killed by a landmine explosion. The victim, 40-year-old U Zaw Min, and another unknown villager were walking towards their village when they stepped on a landmine.  The body of U Zaw Min was cremated on January 2nd, 2025.

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Weekly Analysis: Mon State Junta Releases Prisoners on Independence Day, But Political Detainee Numbers Remain Low

Week One January 2025

On January 4, 2025, to mark the country’s Independence Day, the junta announced the release of prisoners from various prisons across the nation. The military claimed to have released more than 600 political prisoners. However, these figures, which the Political Prisoners Network Myanmar has verified, show that only about 340 were freed, which is indicative of the thousands who remain unjustly imprisoned. The amnesty serves as a reminder of the junta’s desperate quest for legitimacy while it continues to perpetrate widespread and systematic human rights violations.

While the junta tries to mislead the international community, reports from human rights organizations are furnishing vital evidence of the regime’s human rights violations. In a report released by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), at least 95 civilians, including over a dozen minors, were killed by the Burma Army in December 2024 alone. Airstrikes were the primary cause of fatalities, as aerial attacks are increasingly endangering civilians.

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Weekly Analysis: Arbitrary Arrests and Enforced Disappearances on the Rise as Junta Targets Locals

HURFOM: The military junta uses arbitrary arrests as a tool to exert fear over innocent civilians. Since the attempted coup, the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) has documented those arrested and unlawfully detained by the junta in targeted areas of Mon State, Karen State, and the Tanintharyi region. In addition to arbitrary arrests, the military is also regularly detaining villagers who are not heard from again by their families.
 
The military junta detained the owner of a six-wheeled Canter truck allegedly used by the Ye Township resistance force (Ye Balu group) during their attack on the administrator of Ayu Taung village, according to the vehicle owner’s family and close contacts.

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Weekly Analysis: Fears of Forced Evictions by the Junta Worsen Displacement Crisis

Land grabs by the military junta have been a long-standing threat to the security of local people. A decades-old tactic deployed to exert control over ethnic lands and territory in targeted areas of the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM), civilians are concerned about the possibility of further displacement. In Mon State, Karen State, and the Tanintharyi region, forced evictions are frightening communities.

The military junta has ordered the demolition of over 50 homes and shops in Ye Town, Mon State, accusing the residents of illegal land encroachment.

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Weekly Analysis: Displacement Crisis Worsens in Southeastern Burma

HURFOM

Across Southeastern Burma, specifically in target areas of the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM), including Mon State, Karen State, and the Tanintharyi region, the junta is escalating its attacks against sheltering populations who the conflict has impacted.

Renewed clashes between the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and allied forces against the junta troops near the Anankwin strategic camp along the Thanbyuzayat-Three Pagodas Pass Road on the Mon-Karen State border have forced thousands of villagers into prolonged displacement.

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Weekly Analysis: Military Junta Seeks to Illegally Advance Conscription Efforts Through Bribery and Extortion

HURFOM: The 2010 People’s Military Service Law is now being enforced for the first time since it was passed over a decade ago. In February 2024, the military junta unjustly ordered mandatory military service, requiring all men aged 18 to 35 and women aged 18 to 27 to serve in the Myanmar Armed Forces for at least two years. The announcement met with immediate backlash and fear as young people felt apprehensive and uncertain. Nearly one year has passed since its implementation, and the impacts continue to be consequential.

In targeted areas of the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM), including Mon State, Karen State, and the Tanintharyi region, families are devastated as they have been separated from their loved ones who have been recruited to the battlefield while being forced to pay exorbitant rates of bribery and extortion to fund the conscription bid.

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Weekly Analysis: Unprovoked Attacks by the Junta Across Southeastern Burma Spark Fear and Alarm

HURFOM: The junta has scaled up its attacks throughout Southeastern Burma, creating widespread distress and panic among communities who have been routinely displaced. The Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) has observed that in targeted areas of Mon State, Karen State and the Tanintharyi region, the military is intentionally targeting local areas and inciting fear and lawlessness.

On November 4th, despite no active armed clashes in the area, the military dropped two 250-pound bombs on Ban Pyae village and four additional bombs on Koe Inn village, Ta Ku village tract, Tenasserim. The artillery shells struck a house in Koe Inn village and injured a man.

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