RCSS Pauses Forced Recruitment ‘Out Of Mercy’, Spokesperson Claims
By Network Media Group
Friday, September 9, 2022
The Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS) has announced it is suspending its forced recruitment campaign as it has brought too much hardship to the people, according to the armed group’s spokesperson, Lt-Col Oum Khur.
“The people of Shan State are suffering the effects of the war. Other ethnic armed organisations have recruited new soldiers…after so many people were forced to be soldiers, people have become afraid and fled to neighbouring countries. There are no organisations to help the people in this state and that’s why out of mercy, we have stopped our recruitment campaign in our area,” he has told NMG.
However, Oum Khur also said that they do not know when they will start forcing villagers to become soldiers again, which he claimed was necessary to increase the ranks of the RCSS to protect the people of Shan State.
The group usually took one male member of each family between the ages of 18 and 40 if there were two men living in the household. According to locals, they had the option of paying between $240 and $500 if the family did not want their sons or fathers to become soldiers and fight against the Burma Army or other ethnic armed groups.
A 24-year-old man living in Laikha in southern Shan State said that before they stopped it on 3 September, the Shan soldiers forced village leaders to provide up to 10 men from each village.
The RCSS also recruited men from Mong Kung, Kunhing, Mauk Mai, Namsang, Mongton and Mongpan townships where the armed group maintains a presence. Its headquarters are in Loi Tai Leng, on the Thai border.
In 2015, the RCSS signed the so-called Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement and its chairperson Yawd Serk met with regime chief Min Aung Hlaing in Naypyidaw last month.
