RESISTANCE TO CONSCRIPTION NOT NEW
Resistance to conscription is not new. The SAC spokesperson argued that Myanmar was not exceptional and that the current move “aligns with international practices”, claiming that 18 countries practised conscription. A glaring omission is that the primary purpose of conscription is for a country’s defence against external threats, not for the prosecution of internal civil conflicts against one’s fellow citizens.
He also clarified that the 2010 Military Service Law was not without precedent. The law and its present activation stem from the 1959 Military Service Law promulgated by the caretaker government under then commander-in-chief General Ne Win, to which Burma’s then civilian government ceded power constitutionally from 1958 to 1960.
There are historical precedents for the authorities pressing civilians into ancillary roles in the military. This is the key reason why the update of the 2010 Military Service Law has triggered much concern.
For example, the 1907 Village Tract Act, enacted when Burma was a British colony, empowered the authorities to requisition local services, such as for porters, in law enforcement activities. This was technically not conscription, but the military used the Act to press-gang civilians as porters for counter-insurgency operations.
The practice continued after Burma’s independence in 1948. There are documented instances of porters used as human shields and cannon fodder or as labourers in military camps. Though military authorities issued an order in 1999 to stop “exercising powers” under the 1907 Act, it was repealed only in 2012 and replaced by new legislation that sought to address international pressure to reduce forced labour and conscription practices.
Introduced before the military’s shift to a quasi-civilian administration, the 2010 law improved upon the 1959 version by clarifying and simplifying eligibility criteria and terms of service. However, several vague clauses retain significant discretion for the military, including whether Islamic clergy are included in the exemptions for members of religious orders.
Source: CNA
