August 31, 2026
The military junta in Karen State has severely intensified its forced conscription and portering campaign, reaching a point where even individuals who sought refuge by nominally joining Karen armed groups to evade the draft are no longer safe, according to sources affiliated with these groups in Myawaddy and Hpa-An.
Faced with a severe shortage of recruits for military training this August, the junta has pressured local administrators to abduct draft-eligible youth and middle-aged men. The targets now include young visitors, migrant workers relocating to Karen State, and local residents.
When the conscription law was enacted in 2023, many draft evaders registered their names with Karen armed groups and moved around under their banner as a cover. However, a source affiliated with a Karen armed group told PRM that rumors are now circulating that the junta will target these individuals as well.
“The military has been kidnapping porters at Thanlwin Bridge, Naung Lon Valley, Kyar Kalay, Zathabyin, Gyaing Bridge, and Myawaddy for a long time. Now, they will arrest any youth or middle-aged person they see outside. They desperately need recruits. They don’t care if you belong to a Karen organization, or if you are the child of a soldier, police officer, or civil servant. You can’t bribe your way out anymore; everyone has to serve,” the source explained.
Despite the recent severe floods in Karen State, junta forces are using various pretexts to arrest people traveling at night, sending them directly to the Taung Kalay training battalion in Hpa-An.
“They don’t even spare flooded Myawaddy. Local kids don’t dare to go out at night anymore. Migrant workers heading home late are arrested on sight. At least 10 people are abducted every single night. We heard that if they catch people from Karen organizations at night, they will arrest them first and let the superiors negotiate later. If they find out you are just using the group as a cover, they won’t release you,” a Myawaddy resident said.
Furthermore, in Kyondo, Nabu, and Thamanya villages, junta troops have reportedly used fake job offers to lure and abduct people, essentially selling them into military training.
“In recent months, people from the Nabu military base lured villagers by offering masonry and carpentry jobs. They gathered people for what was supposed to be contract work. Then the military swooped in, abducted them as porters, and basically sold them off as new recruits,” a source close to the Nabu military base revealed.
While draft-eligible residents in some areas have not yet been directly called up for training recently, ward and village administrators in Kyondo have been extorting between 5,000 and 50,000 Kyats per household monthly. This systematic extortion, supposedly to fund “substitute soldiers,” has been going on for nearly a year.
