The current conscription system of Myanmar is an act of fascist control, exploiting the life of civilians in order to protect the country’s military junta against the forces of resistance.
In 2024, the Junta began to apply the law on the military service of people of 2010, which makes men compulsory to serve conscripts. More than a year later, as planned, the law did not lead to a newborn patriotic spirit and a warm return, but simply created a scenario where the conscripts are at the mercy of the army; And may even never go home.
Now it’s the turn of women.
For most myanmar women, including myself, the threat of forced conscription presents a dilemma of choice: will we leave everything we have for an uncertain prosecution of freedom and security, but risk the anger of the junta ? Or should we become reluctantly conscripts and hope to be spared from the exploitation of our body, our lives and our people?
The current conscription reader does not concern patriotism. This is only the way the junta affirmed domination over the rights, lives and bodies of people.
What is Happly?
Since the attempted coup of the military junta in 2021, Myanmar has witnessed human rights violations. The conflict that followed has caused a massive exodus of civilians: more than 3.5 million are now moved internally and more than a million have tried to flee in neighboring countries. Following the recent activation of the Military Services Act, these figures increase considerably.
Conscripts do not receive any protection or advantage, and they are not entitled to objections and reallocations. Instead, they are faced with various forms of repression as well as exploitation as human shields, flirting mine, criminal fires and carriers.
Forced conscriptions through kidnappings also occur, a burden that falls particularly hard on the most vulnerable civilians, including children, people LGBTQIA +, refugees, homeless, homeless people, disabled people and many other marginalized groups.
Although women aged 18 to 27 are eligible for enrollment during the initial application of the Military Service Act in 2024, they were not enlisted. It changes now.
Despite the initial denials of the junta, the women were silently enlisted for military service from mid-2024. This year, the collection of data on women eligible in wider parts of Myanmar has started, indicating that mass recruitments are imminent.
The names of married women have also been added to the recent data collections on the eligible women of the junta, even if the law on services free from conscription.
The Services Act allows young students to request a postponement, although some of their applications are refused.
With the sustainable contempt of the army for its own eligibility criteria associated with the fact that it has forced minor boys, forced conscription is possible not only for women but also for young girls – whether they are or not eligible. This has serious dangers for women and girls who have an increased risk of violence, discrimination and oppression based on sex since the junta came to power.
Deterioration Violence Against Women
Harassment and gender violence towards women and girls in Myanmar have been omnipresent problems within the framework of the country’s postcolonial militarized system – the one who places the military largely above the law and prevents the junta to be held responsible for his crimes.
The Myanmar army has historically committed generalized human rights violations against women and girls, in particular those of rural and minority communities. This oppression system includes kidnappings, sexual violence and exploitation, forced marriages and forced work.
The approaching conscription of women will be a story to repeat. This amplifies and prolongs the dangers they face, because conscripts are trapped under the control of the junta.
Since the attempted coup, cases of sexual assault and sexist violence have been endemic, and there are many evidence that rape is used as a weapon of war. In fact, by an account, the soldiers actually received “the authority to violate women”. Women and girls from all myanmar have been increasingly targeted and arbitrarily detained by the junta in retaliation for their resistance and activism. The detainees were reportedly subject to harassment, torture and assault during and beyond their initial interrogations.
Women and girls in active war areas are vulnerable to be captured during military raids, air strikes, fire fires and clashes. Such incidents have been intensifying since February 2021.
Now women are also at risk of forced conscription, exposing them to new violence, exploitation, coercion and continuous horrors of war.
What CA Be done?
The world should not forget the fate of the people of Myanmar. It is essential to underline the importance of international solidarity and pressure, because the atrocities in Myanmar have largely failed in the media and in public discourse. It is necessary to pay more to draw attention to human rights and the humanitarian crises of Myanmar. We need urgent support for allies and international authorities when we continue our struggle for justice.
In response to the accumulation of atrocities in Myanmar, it is imperative that we have urgent measures to support organizations in the field – in particular organizations led by ethnic – by helping to provide assistance, health care , a refuge, education, advocacy initiatives and social services for vulnerable and at risk populations, including those who flee or who have fled conscription.
International allies must also raise awareness and raise awareness of what is happening in Myanmar: share our stories, amplify the voices of affected people, make proactive calls for action and show solidarity through various forms of virtual activism and on ground.
Finally, international organizations, including the United Nations and the Anase, must intervene proactively, not only in their rhetoric but by concrete actions, to hold the military junta responsible for her crimes. There should be more emphasis on the protection of the rights of persons who can be made by imposing complete military sanctions, increasing emergency and sustainable humanitarian aid, pursuing military personnel and other impactful measures.
The international community must recognize that the violent history of the military has been authorized to repeat itself due to the continuous lack of responsibility. Prolonged silence and inaction will contribute to the intensification of the cost of innocent living over time.
Please do not forget us. Please do not give up the people of Myanmar, including my female colleagues, my sisters.