Village headmen in area under Northeastern Region Command in Shan State North have been instructed to recruit people in their area concerned and send them to its command’s headquarters based in Lashio within a week, according to local sources.

Each village tract is assigned to provide 60 men whether they are new men or serving men for military training. They all must arrive at the regional HQ by 7 February, according to a village headman.

“However, we cannot still fill up the number they [the top officers] demanded. Some people, mostly youth, started fleeing when they heard about recruitment order,” he said.

Village tracts that received the order were Tapong, Mong Tame, Mongyang, Markkhinu, Konghsa and Hopeuk. All of these village tracts are facing the same difficult to get full-quota as required by the military junta, said another village headman.

Last month, the Northeastern Region Command had picked up 60 men from each infantry battalion under its command for the newly installed military command in Southern Shan State, which requires 1,500 officers and men. As soon as the selection was issued, some soldiers applied for retirement from military service in order to avoid going to the new command.

The Burma Army had installed a new military command “Middle East” with the purpose of overseeing areas between Shan State South’s Taunggyi and Shan State East’s Kengtung. Its HQ will be based at Kali, 8 miles east of Kunhing township. One of its battalions so far is a newly formed Infantry Battalion (IB) # 151.

Elderly people in the villages shared their views on this new recruitment that the military junta is likely to rush to block the movements of rebel groups, especially the Shan State Army (SSA) ‘North’s First Brigade.

Many local people predicted that Burma Army’s major operations against non-Border Guard Forces (BGF) program is like to begin after the new government is formed.

The new president of the country is expected to be officially announced today.

Many people see Thein Sein is almost certain to be elected as President, Tin Aung Myint Oo as Vice President-1 and Sai Mawk Kham as Vice President-2.