The number of soldiers in Myanmar’s military is much lower than previously estimated, indicating recruitment struggles. (Image: Reuters)
The increase in the number of deserters and battlefield deaths has led to severe personnel shortages in the Myanmar military, which has hurt the junta.
Myanmar’s military is grappling with a troop shortage, posing a challenge to the junta that has suspended all democratic activities in the Southeast Asian nation. Nikkei Asia informed of.
The army has been engaged in clashes with armed pro-democracy resistance groups and reports have indicated that the balance of power is shifting towards the latter.
“The Myanmar military is actually shrinking from a serious – and rapidly growing – personnel shortage,” Ye Myo Heen, a visiting scholar united states peace institute said in a report released in May. The report revealed that Myanmar’s military had suffered 13,000 battlefield deaths and 8,000 defections and desertions since the coup.
In-depth research, unseen data as well as interviews with ex-servicemen and internal military documents reveal #myanmar The military is actually shrinking. @YeMyoHein5 Explains the growing shortage of personnel of military rulers: https://t.co/4FDu9fuDFQ– US Institute of Peace (@USIP) May 7, 2023
The report came shortly after the junta dissolved Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy. The report pointed out that if one adds the Myanmar Air and Navy forces along with other auxiliary corps, the total number of personnel in the Myanmar sit-tat (armed forces) is about 150,000.
Previously, analysts predicted that the Myanmar military had 300,000 to 400,000 soldiers, but recent reports suggest that it has not recruited enough soldiers to fill vacancies.
Other analysts also pointed out Nikkei Asia that “conventional estimates are severely exaggerated”.
The report attributed the recruitment issues to a feeling of resentment among the youth population, who cannot accept the high handedness displayed by the military.
The brutal attitude of the army towards suppressing dissent has demoralized even the youth who have experienced democracy only after 2021. In April, the junta bombed a village in Sagaing and killed more than 160 people who had gathered there to open an office run by the shadow national unity government.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s non-violent resistance has also failed and rebel groups insist on mixing violence with violence. The People’s Defense Forces have also launched guerrilla attacks against the junta.
analysts told Nikkei Asia Even though these rebels once fought with hunting rifles and homemade guns, weapons from “ethnic armed organizations, Thailand, local production” and the military are now available and widely used.
Violence between the rebels and the junta continues to escalate. Human Rights Watch says the junta’s security forces have killed at least 2,400 people and arrested more than 16,000 democracy supporters by November 2022.
The national unity government, backed by ethnic minority rebel groups in a long-running conflict with Myanmar’s military, leads the pro-democracy movement and says it wants a revolution, regardless of Suu Kyi’s views.
