Myanmar Army: $476 and Two Sacks of Rice, the Cost of a Conscript’s Life

Myanmar’s military junta is implementing draconian conscription laws, leading to widespread kidnapping, drugging, and forced recruitment of young people. Wealthier families can pay poorer individuals to serve in their place, while many conscripts are sent on dangerous missions unpaid and used as human shields. Compensation for families of fallen conscripts is minimal or non-existent, with some sold for significant sums by brokers and militia members.

• Myanmar’s military junta has enacted a conscription law that results in the forced recruitment of young people through kidnapping, drugging, and press-ganging.
• Wealthier families often pay poorer individuals to serve in their stead, disproportionately affecting the poor.
• Conscripts are frequently unpaid, used as human shields, and assigned to dangerous frontline positions.
• Brokers and militia members profit from selling abducted individuals into military service, with prices ranging from $35 to $70 for street detentions and up to $7,500 for substitutes who pass medical exams.
• Families receive little to no compensation if their loved ones are killed, with promised death payments often being a meager amount like $476 and two sacks of rice, or even nothing at all.
• The practice has been compared to human trafficking, even by lawmakers within the pro-military party.