Political situation in Myanmar

Anna has nightmares every night about being called in: "Thinking about how we can escape"  

 

Anna wakes up four times a night after nightmares where she is sent to the front and forced to fight. That's what CNN writes in a report that depicts the horror of young people in Myanmar at being called up for mandatory military service.  

 

- We panic and think about how we can escape, says Anna, who is a teacher and in her 20s. '

 

Three years after the bloody coup, Myanmar's junta has announced that all men aged 18-35 and all women aged 18-27 will be able to be called up for at least two years of compulsory military service.  

 

CNN has spoken to young people who are now trying to find a way out, either by leaving the country or joining resistance forces. Pictures on social media show queues outside the Thai embassy where young people are applying for visas.  

 

Assessors believe that the junta's move is rooted in desperation as many soldiers have been killed or deserted. The junta has recently been greatly weakened as a result of ethnic armed groups and resistance groups starting to cooperate. 

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The junta in Myanmar will force young people to take up arms  

 

The military junta in Myanmar has given the military the right to call up all men aged 18-35 and all women aged 18-27 for compulsory military service for at least two years.  

 

The decision, made earlier in February, follows a series of humiliating military defeats in recent months. The site Blankspot states that the decision has provoked strong reactions in the country where the revolutionary movements have great support. 

 

Tom Andrews, UN Special Envoy to Myanmar, comments on the military service decision. He says in a press release that the junta shows signs of weakness and desperation and that it poses an extremely large threat to the civilian population.  

 

- Young people are terrified of being forced to participate in the junta's reign of terror. The number fleeing abroad will explode.  

 

According to the junta, 5,000 people can be called in per month starting in April.

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