Myanmar Junta Sends 70,000 Conscripts to Reclaim Lost Ground

[geovalin]

People Militia Group

 

Myanmar’s military junta has deployed nearly 70,000 conscripts—many barely trained—in a nationwide counteroffensive to retake territory lost to resistance forces and ethnic armed groups, according to defectors and local fighters.

 

The surge in manpower follows the junta’s activation of its long-dormant conscription law in February 2024. Since then, 14 batches of recruits—each 5,000 strong—have been called up, with 11 batches already deployed after completing training at one of 18 military camps across the country.

 

Resistance sources say many of these new recruits are being sent straight to the front lines, particularly in hotspots such as Mobye in southern Shan State, which the regime recently claimed to have recaptured from Karenni fighters after months of intense clashes.

 

“Around half of the troops involved in the Mobye operation were conscripts,” said a local PDF fighter. Colonel Bhone Naing of the Karenni Army confirmed that draftees made up a significant portion of the junta’s forces in the area.

 

The junta’s conscription drive has triggered a wave of fear and defiance. Thousands of young men and women have fled their homes to avoid being drafted. Some, like a 29-year-old who escaped from a military base after three months of training, have joined resistance groups, risking everything rather than fight for the regime.

 

“Once you're in, they don’t care if you live or die,” said the former conscript, now part of a resistance unit in Bago Region.

 

The law, which mandates two to five years of service for men aged 18 to 35 and women aged 18 to 27, has become one of the junta’s most powerful tools for replenishing its ranks as territorial losses mount.

 

But critics argue the policy is fuelling a humanitarian and moral crisis. “The junta is sacrificing Myanmar’s youth to hold on to power,” wrote a resistance member on social media. “If they live, they are used to fight their own people. If they die, there’s one less voice to resist.”

 

Analysts warn that the law could extend the junta’s grip in the short term—but only by deepening national trauma. As the regime moves to retake more towns in Mandalay and northern Shan, the cost is increasingly being paid in young lives.

 

-2025-07-11

[unblocktheplanet]

Interesting the generals are now following Israel by conscripting women equally. They'd need IDF training to be true racist beasts. That goes against the Burman character.

 

Make no mistake: fighting the indigenous militias is based in racism. These kids are expendable cannon fodder.

[dinsdale]

I wonder what threats the junta is using from stopping the vast majority of these cannon fodder conscripts from deserting and or joining the the forces fighting against the junta. 

[ericbj]

On 7/11/2025 at 9:40 AM, unblocktheplanet said:

Interesting the generals are now following Israel by conscripting women equally. They'd need IDF training to be true racist beasts. That goes against the Burman character.

 

Make no mistake: fighting the indigenous militias is based in racism. These kids are expendable cannon fodder.

"Make no mistake: fighting the indigenous militias is based in racism."
True.

 

From memory: about thirty or so years ago a senior Burma Army general declared
"In ten years time you will not find a single Karen outside of a museum."
A web-search has failed to locate this quote, although I might perhaps find it amongst my own archives, if I had time to search them.

 

But this may be of interest:
https://khrg.org/2023/01/criminal-complaint-filed-germany-against-burma-army-generals-crimes-committed-against-karen 
as well as the KHRG site itself.

[unblocktheplanet]

The Irrawaddy is still publishing. Accurate reporting.

[unblocktheplanet]

Took the generals years to find out how to bomb Manerplaw, protected by steep mountains. Way too many amputees, esp children, when I visited. Excellent community. Our boat was fired on by Myanmar soldiers.