Junta and Allied Militias Step Up Abductions for Forced Conscription in Northern Kachin State

Growing panic has gripped northern Kachin State as Myanmar junta forces and allied ethnic militias escalate forced abductions and extortion schemes targeting local civilians for military conscription. Local sources report that members of the indigenous Rawang and Lisu ethnic minorities are being disproportionately targeted in Putao Township, though roundups extend across all communities without age exemptions. “Lisu and Rawang men are the main targets, but people from other ethnic groups are also being taken,” a Putao resident told MNJ. “Some of those abducted are over 50 years old. Relatives are under severe emotional distress because detainees are held in total isolation without family access.” Aggressive nighttime roundups have effectively imposed an informal curfew in downtown Putao, while abductions have spread to peripheral villages and nearby gold-mining encampments. In some instances, students were seized while attending evening tuition classes. While a few youths—primarily children of affluent gold-mining operators—were released after parents paid ransoms reportedly reaching up to 20 million kyats (approx. $5,260 USD), most remain in custody. In rural communities, junta forces and militia leaders have demanded quotas of up to 15 porters per village, forcing households lacking eligible young men to pay "conscription fees" of 50,000 kyats per month. According to the local resistance group Kagabu People’s Force (KPF), a junta-affiliated Rawang militia posted its own conscription decrees on notice boards at several local churches earlier this year. A similar crisis is unfolding in neighboring Khaunglanhpu Township, where fighting resumed five months ago. Militias have reportedly targeted Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), forcing them onto active frontlines as porters and confiscating humanitarian aid intended for displaced families. Detainees taken from Putao and Khaunglanhpu are being forcibly deployed to active combat zones in Khaunglanhpu, or transferred to military training centers in the Kachin State capital of Myitkyina and Meiktila Township in Mandalay Region.