Residents of Naungmon (Nogmung) Town in Putao District, northern Kachin State have become concerned after they were informed that people from the town would be conscripted.

On 7 February 2025, the junta-appointed township administration officer of Naungmon Town, the administrative centre of Naungmon Township, gathered residents together at a school in the town’s Ward 5 and told them that men of conscription age from the town would have to serve in the army.

A Ward 5 resident said to MNJ: “The township administration officer came to Ward 5 and told us that locals would have to join the military service, but he assured us it would be only to defend the communities, not to be sent to the frontlines.”

The administration officer also said that there would be no getting out of serving the junta in some sort of capacity and that anyone who was conscripted but did not want to serve in the army would have to instead serve in local junta-aligned militia groups.

The town’s population is hoping that the junta will not put this plan into action.

A Naungmon Town resident said: “The authorities say that locals must join local militia groups if they don’t want to be conscripted by the junta. Most of the town’s residents don’t agree to this. Locals feel like they are being forced into a corner, especially the parents of young people, who are very worried. We don’t want this situation to proceed.”

He explained that if family breadwinners are conscripted it could cause their families hardship and if young people caring for their elderly parents are conscripted it would cause their parents hardships.

According to another Naungmon Town resident, local junta-aligned militia groups in the town are urging locals to join them.

Former militia members are also being called back to rejoin the militias and are being threatened with arrest if they refuse to do so.

After the junta started enforcing the conscription law on 10 February 2024, local administration officials spent several weeks going door-to-door in Naungmon Town trying to persuade residents to sign up for military service. When they could not find sufficient volunteers they instead conscripted residents, but more recently the junta has not been conscripting from Naungmon Town.

Amendments to the conscription law making it more draconian were enacted on 23 January 2025. These included banning any men of conscription age from leaving the country.