Myanmar military conscription law sparked panic and fear as the youth are preparing to flee inorder to dodge unwanted and unguaranteed militarily service three years after a bloody coup inorder to keep up the fight against armed resistance across multiple fronts on the nation's boundaries.
Three years after the military junta's takeover , the army is facing the biggest challenge to its fragile hold on power and seeks to boost its armed forces with compulsory military service which prompted a rush by young people to get visas to flee out of the country.
The conscription law sparked fear in the war torn Myanmar with the nations youth proclaiming the " i don't want to kill" motto.
It is really a terrifying prospect as the junta activated a mandatory conscription for all young men and women.
Videos shared on social media show long queues of people clutching documents at the Thai Embassy in Myanmar biggest city Yangon.
Young people are now scrambling to figure out how to avoid being sent to the barracks, with some planning hasty exit strategies, illegal if necessary with others planning to leave their homes and join the resistance forces against the military.
Under the new law, all men ages 18 to 35 and women ages 18 to 27 are required to serve for upto two years under military command with speciliasts such as doctors expected to serve for upto three years.
However, evasion of military service is punishable with imprisonment of between 3 to 5 years by the law which had been in books right from the previous military regime but had not been enacted until now.
The law however could be used to justify human rights abuses as it forces a young generation to fight their own people alongside creation of a large exodus of people fleeing to neighbouring countries inorder to escape conscription.
"We have no choice left."
Myanmar military has been weakened by unprecedented coordination betweenn ethnic armed organisations and resistance groups known as People's Defense Forces which support the national Unity government in exile.
These groups have taken control of hundreds of strategic border towns, key military positions and vital trade routes since launching an offensive last October.
According to the state mouthpiece Global New Light of Myanmar, the defence minister Adm Tin Aung San said that the military had the capacity to recruit upto 50,000 people a year and that the conscripts would receive salary, rations and entitlements in accordance to their grades and qualifications.
The Junta spokesperson Zaw Min Tun said that about 13 million people would be eligible for conscription with 60,000 men to be recruited first reportedly in April.
The Myanmar military has had long history of using civilians as human shields or possibly using them either as porters to carry military equipment to and from the battle fronts or making them do the risky job of clearing landmines from fields.
The major concern is that now the law will legslise the practice.
