Myanmar’s military is struggling. Officers are conducting basic training across the country. The state-run media reports that the training is for recruits drafted under a new law. Analysts say the army hopes to counter dwindling numbers—and reignite tensions among ethnic groups.
Myanmar authorities activated a conscription law in February. The law means the military can force men aged 18 to 35 and women 18 to 27 into its ranks for two years. About 14 million men and women are eligible for service in Myanmar. Evading the draft could result in three to five years in prison and a fine.
Authorities enacted the law to replenish the army. Nationwide battles with armed ethnic minority groups and pro-democracy forces have caused army numbers to drop. Some personnel have deserted. Some have died.
The army seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021. Since then, it has battled groups opposed to military rule. Over the past five months, it has lost territory in northern and western states. The army is also under attack elsewhere.
The enlistment law has created fear, anxiety, and defiance among young people and their parents. Some leave the country. Others flee to border areas controlled by ethnic minorities or join resistance groups.
Army officials say the first batch of trainees reported voluntarily after the military government sent them letters. The army held opening ceremonies for training in numerous regions and in the capital, Naypyitaw, according to the state-run newspaper.
Myanmar’s military is also tapping an unlikely source for new recruits: the Muslim Rohingya minority. Seven years ago, these people were targets of a brutal campaign. As many as 740,000 Rohingya fled to neighboring Bangladesh as the army burned their villages.
The recruiting move is meant to counter the army’s shrinkage. Some analysts say it’s also a bid to divide and conquer. They say the army hopes to stir tensions between ethnic groups in Rakhine. That state lies along the coast of the Bay of Bengal.
Rohingya have lived in Rakhine for generations. But they are not officially recognized as a native ethnic minority. Instead, they’re called Bengalis and illegal immigrants. Myanmar has denied them citizenship and other basic rights. The Rohingya are also the targets of widespread social discrimination.
The main anti-military resistance force in Rakhine is the Arakan Army. It is part of the movement seeking greater independence for the majority Rakhine ethnic group, also called the Arakanese. Rakhine nationalists were among the leading persecutors of the Rohingya. But now the Arakan Army and the Rohingya have a common enemy in Myanmar’s military government.
Rohingya Aung Kyaw Moe is deputy minister for human rights in the country’s government in exile. He claims the military is creating a conflict between the Rohingya and Rakhine ethnic groups in hopes of regaining a military advantage in Rakhine.
“The military council is losing the battles nationwide,” Aung Kyaw Moe says. “It seems that they have calculated that only by creating a conflict between Rakhine and Rohingya can the current situation be changed.”
You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed . . . Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. — Matthew 24: 6-7
