Conscripts inducted into Myanmar’s military over the last year have been quickly sent to frontline units where they are ordered to torch civilian homes and loot public property, several soldiers who deserted told Radio Free Asia.
The accounts come after the junta has conscripted men between 18 and 35 to make up for losses and surrenders by the military in Myanmar’s four-year civil conflict.
Pyae Sone, a recent recruit who had fled duty last month and was in hiding, told RFA Burmese that junta officers freely stole food from villagers, slaughtering cattle and ordered soldiers to burn down homes.
“When we entered villages, we took whatever edible food we could find if we had nothing to eat,” he said. “Since we lacked sufficient supplies, we were ordered to seize food. The junta officers reinforced their motto: ‘Cattle for food, homes for firewood.’”
He was first sent to the 105th Infantry Battalion, based in Bago region’s Inn Ta Kaw township, and later to Sagaing region’s Monywa township where the military’s northwestern regional headquarters is located. There were 24 new conscripts in the column, he said.
From Monywa, his 30-person column patrolled nearby villages, where soldiers were ordered to kill cattle for food and destroy homes, he said.
Ever since Myanmar started drafting young people for the military last year, they have fled the country or looked for other ways to avoid serving. That led to mass arrests by police and military officials in major cities in what some residents described as “snatch and recruit” operations.
About 70 percent of the junta’s forces currently on the front lines are new conscripts, according to people’s defense forces and ethnic armed groups.
That percentage was also mentioned by a former military junta officer who spoke to RFA.
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Another conscript, Ye Lin, said he took part in military operations in Demoso and Loikaw townships in Kayah state where his unit set fire to homes after dousing them with gasoline.
The unit had about 300 soldiers, 250 of whom were new conscripts, Ye Lin said.
“Officers ordered us to cut down trees and burn houses to clear the area,” he said. “They also instructed us to plant landmines for their protection. The houses were set on fire one after another alternately. Brick walls were forcibly broken through.”
Ye Lin said he and three other new conscripts fled the unit on Jan. 29.
RFA was unable to contact junta spokesman Major Gen. Zaw Min Htun on Monday.
Translated by Aung Naing. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.