Many in Myanmar consider fleeing to Thailand to escape conscription into an army they despise

By GRANT PECK
Associated Press

BANGKOK (AP) — Ever since Myanmar’s military announced it is implementing conscription to fill its ranks, Thwel sees very few options. The 25-year-old schoolteacher in Myanmar’s southern Mon state believes she must flee the country or face fatal consequences. She’s a supporter of the Civil Disobedience Movement, which carries out nonviolent resistance to military rule. Crowds of people have thronged to get passports and visas to neighboring Thailand in the two weeks since the government activated a law making at least 14 million young people subject to conscription. Some potential conscripts plan to go abroad. Others to seek safe haven in areas controlled by ethnic groups battling the army that has been depleted by its struggle to quash a nationwide pro-democracy insurgency.