‘Snatch and recruit’ arrests in Myanmar target youth for military service

Authorities loyal to Myanmar’s junta arrested around 250 youths in four major cities in December, RFA Burmese has learned, and residents say they are deliberately targeting young people to force them to join the military.

If their suspicions are correct, it would be just the latest example of the junta finding creative ways to conscript citizens as it struggles to maintain control over the country it seized in a February 2021 coup.