The Myanmar Defense & Security Institute (MDSI), a research organization founded by military defectors, announced that the regime is providing training to its first batch of female conscripts at the No. 4 Officer and Sergeant Military Training School in Hmawbi Township, Yangon Region, citing a confidential source in the Myanmar Army.
“The training is being conducted secretly,” stated MDSI in a report on Aug. 13. It went on to claim that the female conscript training has been ongoing for over two months. The MDSI was established on March 27 by military personnel who defected to the non-violent Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM), which is a nationwide uprising led by civil servants against a return to military rule in Myanmar since the coup on Feb. 1, 2021.
The No. 4 Officer and Sergeant Military Training School, known in Burmese as YaKaTha 4, provides office training for female new recruits, military clerks, and sergeants, according to the MDSI. Sources from Yangon told DVB that local regime administrators began collecting the personal information of women over 18-years-old earlier this year.
The regime enforced its conscription law on Feb. 10, 2024, which stipulates that men aged 18 to 35 and women aged 18 to 27 must serve in the military for at least two years. Training for the 15th batch of military conscripts has been completed and recruitment plans for the 16th are underway, according to Yangon residents.
The National Unity Government (NUG) Ministry of Human Rights stated on Aug. 4 that 30,429 people have been forcibly conscripted into the military since April 2024 when the first intake began. It claimed that the majority of those conscripted come from central Myanmar’s Mandalay Region.
An estimated 70,000 males have been conscripted into the military, according to Human Rights Watch. Regime spokesperson Zaw Min Tun announced in 2024 that 5,000 new conscripts would receive training in each batch, but that females would be exempt for the time being.
*This story was updated on Aug. 16
