Thai men draw cards in military conscription lottery

9 articles · Updated · The New York Times · May 10

At a Bangkok-area mall, men picked black cards for exemption or red cards requiring military service, as 23-year-old Patchaya Tharongphon feared two years away from his young daughter.
Thailand conscripts tens of thousands of men each year under a decades-old mandatory draft that remains deeply divisive despite a rise in nationalism after last year's war with Cambodia.
The lottery underscores the military's enduring power alongside the monarchy and comes before a Constitutional Court ruling on Tuesday on the validity of the law governing the draft.

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