Reports have emerged of forced military recruitment of young people in Yangon Region. Maung Htet Way Ya, a student who has not yet reached legal age, and his older brother Maung Moe Chit Naung from Padauk Saw village in Kwun Chan Kone Township were sold into military service after they went to Yangon in search of work. The two left for Yangon on April 29, and on May 10, they were arrested by six individuals who claimed they needed to conduct an interrogation. They were subsequently sent to the Yamèthin military training school.
Maung Htet Way Ya is a student who had completed his matriculation exam and was due to enter grade 12, still too young for military service. His brother Maung Moe Chit Naung is only 22 years old and had not received any official military service notice from the state. They were deceived and sold into military service while looking for work in Yangon during their school break, according to a local monk. The incident has highlighted the ongoing issue of forced recruitment into military service through deceptive practices.
Additionally, in Hlegu Township, the administrator of Boe Yin Lay village, Myo Thein, has been orchestrating the trafficking of young people into military service. He employs brokers Than Hlaing and Aung Khine Moe from Zayet Kwin village to deceive youth from Bago and Ayeyarwady regions with false promises of employment. These young people are then trafficked into the military using identity document substitution schemes. Local sources have confirmed that the administrator and his team are systematically processing these forced recruitments.
In Boe Yin Lay village, administrator Myo Thein and his group are collecting 70,000 kyats per household from over 850 households as a military service fee. Furthermore, they are demanding between 1.5 million to 3 million kyats from families of youth who are required to serve in the military as substitution fees. Local residents are calling for immediate action against these deceptive practices of selling young people into military service. The systematic nature of these operations, involving local administrators and brokers, has created a concerning pattern of forced military recruitment that particularly targets vulnerable young people seeking employment opportunities.
