Yangon trishaw driver forcibly conscripted after junta falsifies his age on official documents to meet military enlistment criteria

Mizzima

In a severe escalation of forced enlistment tactics, Myanmar military junta forces in Tamwe Township, Yangon, abducted a 47-year-old trishaw driver and conspired with the Ministry of Immigration and Population to forcibly alter his age to 35 on a newly issued National Registration Card (NRC), manipulation engineered solely to fulfill legal military service requirements before transferring him to a training camp.

The victim of this administrative forgery and forced conscription has been identified as U Myint Saing, a native of Naga Village in Magway Region’s Yenangyaung Township, whose desperate family members are now publicizing his case to appeal for immediate external assistance.

U Myint Saing initially vanished on 16 March while operating his trishaw to support his household, plunging his family into total silence for nearly two months as all communication links were severed.

Contact was finally re-established between 10 May and 20 May, revealing that he is currently detained at the No. 3 Basic Military Training School, Branch 1, located in Yamethin Township, Mandalay Region, where he has been assigned to Military Training Batch 25.

Following the discovery of his whereabouts, his wife, Daw Khin Soe Yee, accompanied by a Buddhist monk named Joti (Zawti), traveled to the Yamethin training facility to locate him on 31 May, a harrowing ordeal documented in a video testimony recently shared across social media platforms.

During the visitation, his wife revealed via social media that the military junta had confiscated and destroyed U Myint Saing’s original National Registration Card (NRC). In its place, authorities issued a falsified card, which featured an altered birth date and a completely new identification number officially downgrading his age to 35.

According to his wife, despite formal interventions and appeals from local Buddhist monks and village administrators to secure the release of the 47-year-old trishaw driver, the military training school authorities flatly refused to release him.

U Myint Saing serves as the primary breadwinner for his family, leaving behind his wife, Daw Khin Soe Yee, who is currently in poor health, and their three children. In his forced absence, the household is experiencing severe livelihood hardships.

Similar incidents of arbitrary abductions for forced military training are reportedly escalating across Yangon. On 11 May, two internally displaced youths, Pyae Phyo Wai and Ko Ko Naing, vanished while working as bricklayers near Danyingone Market in Hlaing Tharyar Township, leaving their families desperately seeking assistance to track their whereabouts.

Furthermore, a parallel incident occurred in Mandalay in May, where a minor under the age of 18 was forcibly abducted on the street. Video evidence circulating on social media indicates the child was effectively “sold” into military service after authorities fabricated a fake identification card to falsely certify he had reached the legal age for conscription.

In that specific case, the parents were able to track down and rescue the child in time. However, the majority of victims lose all contact with their families and are sent directly to military training centres.

Currently, military junta forces and police are conducting frequent, aggressive “guest list” inspections and targeted arrests of youths across various townships in Yangon, alongside routine abductions of individuals during their daily commutes. This intensifying dragnet follows the junta leader’s official activation of the People’s Military Service Law on 10 February, 2024.

According to detailed accounts from defecting soldiers, the regime is systematically seizing youths and manual labourers from both urban centres and rural communities to undergo forced military training, with the explicit intention of deploying them as “human shields” on the front lines of the escalating conflict.

The junta has launched up to 24 batches of its “People’s Military Training” programme, reportedly forcing an average of 4,800 recruits into service each month. According to the Myanmar Defense & Security Institute (MDSI), Training Batch 22 concluded its session at the end of April, bringing the total number of personnel trained under the conscription programme to over 100,000 thus far.

Data compiled by MDSI indicates that as of 11 May, the regime has expanded its infrastructure to 28 active training centres across the country, all dedicated to processing and training recruits for the military service mandate.