It is reported that the people of each ward and village rent volunteers for the quota of the first batch of 75 people who were forcibly drafted in Chaungzon Township, Monstate.
According to the junta’s administrative community in Chaungzon Township, the wards and villages in Chaungzon Township must proportionally rent the number of forced demands for military service and the price ranges from a minimum of MMK 3,000,000 (three million) to a maximum of MMK 5,000,000 (five million).
“In the case of Khayaikthit village, the person who will join the army demand MMK 5,000,000, and the villagers have to pay for him proportionally. Some villages need to pay MMK 3,000,000 or 4,000,000. Every village rent in this batch. Villages have different numbers for military service. The village that are demanded for two must hire two,” said an employee from the General Administrative Department of Chaungzon Township.
It is reported that Zaw Naing Win, the administrator of the Chaungzon Township Administrative Department, said that only one person is demanded for military service for the village or ward administrators who can find money for him, and more are given for military service for villages that cannot find money for him.
“Some villages are small. However, they can’t raise money for Zaw Naing Win, so they have to provide two people to serve in the military. Some villages are big, but only one person. Then they have to pay Zaw Naing Win to reduce their village’s demand. Zaw Naing Win is like a starving dog, always hungry for money,” he continued.
In the wards and villages in Chaungzon Township, if there is a person who wants to join the army, they rent him, and if there are no villagers who want to join the army, they hire from other places, according to a person close to the police in the ‘Western Ward” of Chaungzon.
“There are farm workers (hired hands) and fishermen in Chaungzon. There are people who came from Bago and Anyar (the central upper of Myanmar). They also hire themselves out to join the junta’s army. Just like grabbing porters (also as human shields) in the 1980s, the villages paid for porters, and they ran away. Now, they are saying that those who would join the army (Junta’s) would run away,” he said.
The first batch of these 75 will undergo military training in May, (2024) and the training takes for four months, according to an employee of the Chaungzon Township Administrative Department.
“In May, trainees from Mawlamyine must go to the Southeast Regional Military Headquarters. I don’t know where they will be sent from there to give training. Now, the list of 75 must be submitted to the township general administrative governor on Monday, March 25,” he said.
When the second batch is called up, they will be selected by lots, and those who do not want to join the army will have to find a substitute on their own.
“Whether there is someone at home or not, and even though they are working abroad, if they are on the list, the family members who are in the house have to draw lots. If the lot is on, they have to find a substitute. If they can’t do it, I don’t know what the next is,” he continued.
It is said that most of the young adults in Chaungzon Township are working in Thailand and Malaysia, so they are not in their towns.