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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Esther J and Rebecca Ratcliffe

Snatched from their beds, taken on the streets - the young men in Myanmar forced to fight the junta’s losing war

A queue for visas at Thailand’s embassy in Yangon in February 2024 after Myanmar's junta announced it would impose military service.
A queue for visas at Thailand’s embassy in Yangon in February 2024 after Myanmar's junta announced it would impose military service. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Than Htun, 29, was still in bed when the men came to his home in Yangon to take him away. “He couldn’t prepare anything. They just ordered him to bring his national identity card, a copy of his census registration and two sets of clothes,” recalled his sister, Khin May.

The group of soldiers and local officials were forcibly conscripting Than Htun into Myanmar’s military. He would be made to fight for the country’s widely loathed junta in its fierce war against pro-democracy fighters and ethnic armed groups.

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