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A parade by the military in Myanmar in March 2023: "The junta only brings bad things, only violence"
Photo: Aung Shine Oo / AP
There are videos from the past few days that show long queues in front of the Thai embassy in Yangon in Myanmar: young people urgently requesting a visa for the neighboring country.
According to local media, hundreds of such visas are being issued every day.
The Burmese want to leave their homeland, most of them are fleeing to Thailand, which is now even planning a humanitarian corridor.
The reason for the latest exodus from the war-torn country: The military regime has put a law into force that allows every man between the ages of 18 and 35 and every young woman between the ages of 18 and 27 to be forced into military service.
Most citizens are against the regime and against the power of the military.
But in the future they can be obliged to become part of it - and to fight against their own population.
In February 2021, the junta returned to power in Myanmar, imprisoned the de facto head of government Aung San Suu Kyi and declared a state of emergency.
The coup ended years of opening
in the Southeast Asian country, a phase in which it looked as if decades of conflict, ethnic minority struggles and changing military regimes could finally be followed by more democracy.
The junta has ruled with brutal severity since 2021.
Many young people have gone underground to fight against the army.
They form an army of volunteers who undergo military training in the jungles for violent resistance.
And many others who previously tried to study, work and start families in the country's villages and cities are now fleeing at the latest since compulsory military service was announced.
Human Rights Watch estimates that the number of refugees in the past few months alone is more than 45,000.
In total, more than 2.5 million Burmese live in Thailand.
Despite the war, Audrey, Thiri and Chit Yin Htoo have tried to lead a normal everyday life.
Audrey, 29, works as a model in Yangon.
Thiri, 21, studies in Mandalay.
Chit Yin Htoo is 24 years old and is actually a teacher in Yangon.
Since the coup three years ago, he has not been in front of a class because, as he says, there are fewer and fewer students because so many families have left the country.
Since then, Chit Yin Htoo has been helping his parents sell food.
Audrey, Thiri and Chit Yin Htoo's names are not their real ones.
Because they are afraid that they will have to fear consequences because of the telephone interview with SPIEGEL.
You know the stories of the many who were critical of the military and ended up in prison or killed because of it.
Few people in Myanmar still dare to speak to the media.
Here the three talk about what the new law means for them.
Audrey
: »Every young person in Myanmar is now in danger.
Many of my friends are extremely scared and depressed.
They want to escape or join the resistance.
The military does what it wants.
The army is uncivilized and fascist.
She's in a desperate state, and now she's dragging us all down with her."
Thiri:
»If I get drafted, I will probably die.
I'm not trained.
We are being used like cannon fodder.
I may well step on a landmine.
I've never handled a gun before.
Why?
I am 21 and a student.
Besides, I am a woman.
I am afraid that I will be sexually harassed or abused by the soldiers.
There are many reports of this.
No one will protect me from this.”
The law on conscription is not new at all; it has existed since 2010 and was introduced by the military government at the time. So far, however, what the junta has now done has not been put into effect: anyone who refuses to comply faces five years in prison. A regime spokesman told the BBC that the first 5,000 people would now be recruited and that in addition to fighters, the military also needed specialists such as computer programmers and economists.
Chit Yin Htoo
: »Myanmar has been an unsafe country for its own population since the military coup.
Now there is this conscription.
For me this is nothing other than them legally kidnapping people and forcing them to use weapons.
This causes even more difficulties for people in rural areas and cities.
We all don't know: Will it get me?
Will it get my son, my daughter?
Does it make sense to start studying, open a shop, start a family now?
Because the military can come knocking at any time.
Then all plans will be ruined.”
Thiri
: »I don't think I have the chance to flee the country.
I have no money and I don't have a job here.
Since the new law, I've been hiding in the house a lot, hoping that I'll be overlooked.
Maybe it won’t affect me.”
Experts say the law will force young people in Myanmar to commit human rights crimes as soldiers. Enforcing compulsory military service is a sign of the military's growing desperation. Things are getting more and more in trouble. Three years after the coup, there is little support among the population. Many cities in the country are controlled by the resistance. Many soldiers, in turn, defect to the rebels or desert and try to flee to India, Bangladesh, China or Thailand.
Chit Yin Htoo:
»If I am drafted, I am 95 percent sure that I will die.
The military's situation is dire.
And the resistance is strong.
The resistance is actually the side that I support.
So I would have to fight against those who are committed to a free Myanmar.”
Thiri
: »Is this law fair?
Nothing in this country has ever been fair for ordinary people.
In Myanmar, indigenous people and the poor have already been persecuted, now we are all being persecuted.
By a military that will probably never be held accountable.”
According to the United States Institute of Peace, Myanmar's military has only about 150,000 troops left, including 70,000 combat soldiers. Since the coup, it has lost at least 20,000 military members because they died or deserted.
Audrey
: »I'll go.
I will try to support my country from outside.
Send money to sustain education.
And I will support the armed resistance financially.”
Chit Yin Htoo:
»Most of my friends flee and then work illegally and without rights in Thailand.
While good people are needed everywhere in Myanmar, actually.
I can not go.
I am the eldest son.
I can't let my parents down.
We have been suffering under this cruel regime for years.
So long that we have all become numb and insensitive.
The junta has not yet done anything good for this country.
It brings only bad things, only violence.”
Collaboration: Aung Naing Soe
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