reader Posted February 17 Posted February 17 From The Nati The Thai embassy in Yangon has been flooded with visa applications as Myanmar youths are seeking to leave the country following a junta announcement on compulsory military conscription that now also includes women. More than 1,000 people – many of them young Myanmar men and women – lined up at the Thai embassy to apply for visas on Friday. A long queue was formed inside the compound while a large number of people gathered outside the embassy. The embassy said it was issuing 400 numbered tickets a day in order to manage the queue, news agency Agence France Presse reported. It said there was a queue of between 1,000 and 2,000 people snaking through the streets near the Thai mission in downtown Yangon. That marks an exponential surge from less than 100 people the previous day. The Myanmar junta announced last Saturday it would enforce a law that allows the military to summon all men aged 18-35, and women aged 18-27, to serve for at least two years. The People’s Military Service Law was authored by a previous junta in 2010 but was never brought into force. Under a directive issued by junta leader Min Aung Hlaing, men aged 18-35 and women aged 18-27 could face up to five years in prison if they refuse military service. Junta spokesman Maj-General Zaw Min Tun said that starting in April, about 5,000 people each month would be enrolled in the military to perform “national defence duties”, Radio Free Asia reported on Thursday. The spokesman told several junta-affiliated newspapers that as many as 50,000 men would be recruited this year into the military, which has suffered numerous battlefield defeats and large-scale surrenders in recent months. vinapu 1 Quote
macaroni21 Posted February 17 Posted February 17 Eh? As ASEAN citizens, don't the Burmese get into Thailand visa-exempt? Or are these guys looking for longer term visas, in which case why didn't the reporter say so? Quote
reader Posted February 17 Author Posted February 17 Myanmar gets only 14 days on visa exemption. vinapu 1 Quote
reader Posted February 20 Author Posted February 20 From AFP / Thai PBS World Two killed in crush as hundreds queue for passports in Myanmar Yangon, Myanmar – Two people were killed in a crush outside a passport office in Myanmar on Monday, a rescue worker said, as thousands rush to leave the country to escape a junta military service law. Two women aged 52 and 39 died early Monday after hundreds of people surged to get in line at the passport office in second city Mandalay, a rescue worker who arrived at the scene told AFP. “There was a ditch near the crowd. They fell into the ditch and died from a lack of oxygen,” the rescue officer said, requesting anonymity for security reasons. Another woman was slightly injured, the officer said, adding that all three had been selling tokens assigning numbers in the queue. Local media also reported the deaths. Three years after seizing power in a coup, the military is struggling to crush widespread armed opposition to its rule. In recent weeks it has lost territory and control of lucrative trade routes to China to an alliance of ethnic minority armed groups. Earlier this month it said it would enforce a law allowing it to call up all men aged 18-35 and women aged 18-27 to serve in the military for at least two years. The law was written by a previous junta but never used, and it remains unclear how it will be enforced. No details have been given about how those called up would be expected to serve, but many young people are not keen to wait and find out. Last week local media images showed hundreds of people queueing outside the passport office in Mandalay. In commercial hub Yangon thousands of young men and women queued outside the Thai embassy seeking visas to get out of Myanmar last week. Around 13 million people will be eligible to be called up, a junta spokesman said last week, though the military only has capacity to train 50,000 a year. The junta has previously said it is taking measures to arm pro-military militias as it battles opponents across the country — both anti-coup “People’s Defence Forces” (PDFs) and more long-standing ethnic minority armed groups. by Agence France-Presse vinapu 1 Quote
fedssocr Posted February 20 Posted February 20 I wonder if the anti-junta people could take over from the inside. Seems like giving weapons to people opposed to the military government might not be too bright Quote
