Myanmar junta enforces military service law

Military officers march during a parade to commemorate Myanmar’s 78th Armed Forces Day in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, on March 27, 2023. Myanmar’s military government on Saturday Feb. 10, 2024 activated for the first time a decade-old conscription law that makes young men and women subject to at least two years of military service if called up, effective immediately. //AP

Myanmar’s junta is enforcing a law allowing the military to summon all men aged 18-35 and women aged 18-27 to serve for at least two years, it said on Saturday, as it struggles to crush opposition to its 2021 coup.

The country has been in turmoil since the military seized power that year, with massive pro-democracy protests morphing into widespread armed resistance.

The junta “issued the notification of the effectiveness of People’s Military Service Law starting from February 10th, 2024,” the junta’s…