During the last decade several of them have come to terms with Rangoon. In areas like that populated by the Shan, the government seems to have traded acquiescence in a booming narcotics trade for a cease-fire. But the Karen, who are resolutely anti-drug, and several other ethnic groups fight on. In response, the SPDC has expanded its military to some 400,000. Conscripts are simply dragged off the streets.
Pay is irregular, training sparse and morale low.
In fact, he says, most Burmese soldiers favor the democracy movement, but brutality and fear keep them in the ranks. Rangoon maintains numerous bases in eastern Burma and periodically strikes at villages suspected of harboring rebels. SPDC forces impress civilians, women as well as men, as porters for months at a time. Hungry soldiers take villagers' crops and livestock. Refugees also report frequent beatings, rapes, and murder, stories confirmed by Yei Shweh and other defectors.