Myanmar Spring Chronicle – Scenes from June 24
(MoeMaKa), June 25, 2026
The Struggle to Survive Under the Oppression of the Conscription Law
The Military Service Law—and the requirement of compulsory military service—has become one of the many realities confronting people living in civil war–torn Myanmar. For most civilians, daily life is shaped by the laws and orders imposed by whichever side controls the area in which they live, leaving them struggling simply to survive under these competing systems of authority.
Most media reports about forced recruitment outside the formal legal framework focus on areas controlled by the military junta. Although there are also reports of revolutionary armed organizations issuing local directives and recruiting conscripts in territories under their control, the overwhelming majority of coverage concerns recruitment carried out by the junta.
On June 24, BBC Burmese reported that a woman from North Okkalapa Township had filed a police complaint against her ward’s former administrator and several neighborhood leaders after her husband was deceptively transferred to another township and forcibly conscripted. This incident illustrates the resilience and hardship endured by civilians living under military rule.
The incident reportedly began as a domestic dispute. Seeking help in calming her husband, the wife approached someone she knew at the ward administration office. Instead of mediating, the ward administrator transferred her husband to the administrator of Dagon Township in southern Yangon, where he was swiftly sent into the military recruitment system. The incident occurred in the middle of last year.
Several months later, the wife filed a complaint at the police station against five individuals, including the ward administrator and local household leaders. She alleged that her husband had been forcibly transferred on the household registration list without his consent and sent into military service, arguing that the act constituted human trafficking. Although police did not accept the case under anti-human trafficking laws, they reportedly opened an investigation on charges related to unlawful detention, forced labor, and aiding and abetting those offenses.
The ward administrator named in the complaint no longer holds the position. According to the report, former political prisoner Ma Su Su Nway is assisting the wife in pursuing legal action over her husband’s forced conscription.
This case reflects the circumstances faced by ordinary people living under the government established after the coup—an administration headed by the coup leader as president and operating with a legislature largely dominated by representatives of the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP). It highlights the determination and resilience required simply to endure daily life under such a system.
Those living in liberated areas controlled by revolutionary armed groups—or Myanmar citizens living abroad and working to free the country from military dictatorship—may view this as merely another isolated incident.
Many advise people living under military rule either to join the revolutionary armed resistance to avoid conscription or to leave the country and seek work abroad. Yet such choices are simply not available to everyone.
Many remain because they must support their families or care for elderly or dependent relatives. For them, the only option is to stay and face whatever circumstances arise inside the country.
People living in junta-controlled areas struggle not only with the threat of forced military recruitment but also with soaring inflation, rising crime, shrinking employment opportunities, and the breakdown of public services such as healthcare, education, and social welfare. Under these conditions, even earning an honest living has become increasingly difficult.
The rise in crime is evident in the daily reports of robberies, murders, and sexual violence. When fighting forces residents to flee urban areas, widespread looting of abandoned homes has become common in many towns. These crimes are generally not committed by ordinary working people, but rather by habitual criminals and drug addicts who engage in burglary and theft.
The junta appears to prioritize arresting and punishing political and military opponents over combating ordinary crime. As a result, civilians are forced to endure not only the hardships of war but also deteriorating law and order and an increasing lack of public security.
For many ordinary people, political debates and elite-level disputes hold little relevance to their daily lives. Their immediate concerns are the fighting, travel restrictions, soaring prices, and the ever-present threat of forced military recruitment. These are the realities they experience firsthand.
At times, discussions among political circles abroad seem to revolve more around disputes among political elites than around the lives of ordinary people struggling to survive across Myanmar. Political leaders and activists, therefore, should pay greater attention to the everyday hardships and resilience of the public rather than focusing primarily on conflicts within their own political circles.