The Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), a member of the Three Brotherhood Alliance, is reportedly planning to start conscripting residents of Mogok Town in Mandalay Region.
Mogok Town was captured from the junta by a coalition of the TNLA and people’s defence forces (PDFs) on 24 July 2024.
Sources in the TNLA-run town administration office said that conscription will target men aged 18 to 45 and that the TNLA is going to conscript enough people to form a garrison to guard the town.
A Mogok resident said: “The TNLA has already started registering families with adult males. There are reports that it will begin enforcing conscription, but the People's Defence Force (PDF), an ally of the TNLA in the town, denies this.”
In some Mogok Town wards the TNLA has been compiling lists of all household members since February.
The TNLA is a Palaung ethnic armed organisation. In the past it has only compiled lists of ethnic Palaung families for conscription, but now it is compiling lists of people in all Mogok Town households, irrespective of their ethnicity. These are more than likely the lists from which conscripts will be drawn.
An ethnic Palaung person living in Mogok Town said to Voice of Shan-Ni: “Such data collection of Palaung ethnic families has occurred in the past. The TNLA has not provided a specific reason for this. However, there are reports that the registration was carried out with the aim of conscripting adult males from the registered families.”
The subject of conscription has become a hot topic of conversation amongst the residents of Mogok Town and many of them have called on the TNLA to reconsider its conscription plans.
The TNLA has been increasing its efforts to compile household registration lists from which it can draw up lists of conscripts in many towns now under its control, but it is yet to make a statement about its conscription plans.
