Residents have revealed that Aung Kyaw Moe, the administrator of Ward 4 (FMI City) in Hlaing Tharyar Township, Yangon, is threatening young people studying or working abroad to return for mandatory military service while demanding up to 5 million kyats in extortion money. Since early April, the administrator has been summoning parents of young people in the ward individually regarding the military service batch 12, conducting systematic extortion under the guise of military recruitment.
The administrator is forcefully collecting detailed information about youth abroad, including their school names, company names, and addresses. He threatens that they must return for mandatory military service, and if they cannot return, they must pay between 3 to 5 million kyats. These payments are required to be submitted in envelopes labeled as ‘road donations’ within two weeks. This systematic extortion scheme has created significant distress among local families who have children studying or working overseas.
Local residents have also exposed that Administrator Aung Kyaw Moe has appointed his daughter as a clerk in the ward administration office, effectively running it like a family business. According to a local resident’s testimony, the administrator has been abusing his power over the public, summoning every household in the ward to his office under the pretext of military service batch 12, and threatening that if they cannot pay the demanded money, their children must return from abroad for military service.
The military council is currently conducting forced recruitment, arbitrary arrests, and intimidation across the country for military service batch 12, scheduled to begin in April. These coercive actions against civilians further demonstrate the military council’s ongoing human rights violations, as pointed out by activists. The systematic nature of these threats and extortion attempts reveals a broader pattern of oppression being implemented at the local administrative level, directly impacting families with members living or studying abroad.
