In Myanmar, various rebel groups have been fighting against the military since a military coup in 2021. They are poorly equipped and yet are increasingly putting more pressure on the regime. What drives them? On the road in the border area of Tailand and Myanmar.
Until the military coup, Kyaw Gyi was a hip hairdresser in a big city in Myanmar, and you can still see that in his styled hair today. Then the 35-year-old joined the fight against the military regime
In a secret location in Mae Sot on the border with Thailand, he sits on a hospital bed, missing his right eye. He lost it in the fight against the military. “We sacrificed our lives, so we don’t mind sacrificing our bodies too,” he says.
Kyaw reports that he was desperate and angry after the military brutally suppressed the peaceful resistance of the civilian population in 2021.
By then, Myanmar had experienced ten years of democratic opening and economic prosperity. With the military coup it was over in one fell swoop. “I joined the rebels not because I’m bloodthirsty or want to kill. The military oppresses and tortures the population. I couldn’t watch that.”
Military weakened like never before since the coup
Rebel groups and the military have been engaged in particularly fierce fighting in the north of the country for around six weeks. With their coordinated attacks, the rebels have quickly captured more than 300 military bases and around 20 cities controlled by the regime, according to local media.
The military is weaker than ever since the coup almost three years ago. This gives the rebels courage. “Our goal is to win this revolution and we will fight until then. We have the people on our side, that is the main reason why we will win in the end,” says 23-year-old Ko Khant.
Before the coup, he was a chef at a restaurant in Yangon serving European cuisine. Two years of fighting have left their mark. Ko Khant lost his right forearm while preparing an explosive device.
“It’s a nightmare”
Nay Chi Lin runs the makeshift clinic in Mae Sot where the young men are currently being treated. She pushes open the door to the rehab center. A room with a few fitness machines. For the seriously injured, there is a makeshift shower on an open-air hospital bed in the yard.
130 men and women are currently finding refuge and medical care here. A man lies in a bed, half paralyzed. He was injured in the head. Another was shot in the groin. He is scheduled to undergo surgery soon at a local hospital. Fates that also burden Nay Chi Lin:
Honestly, I cry every day. But never in front of them, never. It’s a nightmare. Every day you see blood, terrible injuries, they suffer before your eyes and sometimes they ask me to kill them because they can’t take it anymore.
The 37-year-old is the mother of three children. Since the military coup in 2021, their lives have only revolved around the injured fighters. She collects donations for food, hospital beds, operations. Most of the money comes from Burmese living and working abroad.
“I don’t think much about the future,” says Nay Chi Lin. “Every day there is an emergency, we have to fight. When I wake up, I think, thank you, God gave me a new day. And then I run, try to do everything.” She laughs at the men.
On the outside she is strong, the shoulder to lean on, the big sister. Many here have lost their own families in military attacks. Others have not seen their families since joining the armed resistance to protect their loved ones.
They bomb villages, schools, hospitals
Most of the injured people being treated here fight for the Karen, an ethnic minority in southeastern Myanmar. There are dozens of armed groups across the country. Their common enemy: the military junta.
“We will defeat the military together,” said Karen spokesman Padoh Saw Taw Nee in an official statement. “We want the regime to stay out of politics. Their air strikes against the civilian population are crimes against humanity, a war crime.”
Military jets repeatedly bomb villages, schools and hospitals. The rebels are powerless against the attacks from the air.
Before joining the resistance, the rebels worked in normal jobs. At some point, they hope, they can return there again.
“Revolution is our duty”
24-year-old Raymi shows a video on his cell phone. He filmed it through tall trees. Four fighter jets fly in the sky. “We change the location of our camp about every three weeks so the military doesn’t know where we are.”
They live in simple camps with tents made of rain tarpaulin, in the middle of the jungle. When he hears the military jets, Raymi is scared to death. But so far he has been lucky.
Raymi belongs to a group called the People’s Defense Forces. When the military seized power, he was a newly qualified math teacher. After the coup, he also took up arms: “When injustice became the law, the revolution became our duty.”
Tireless will to fight
But many rebel groups are technically inferior to the highly equipped military. They sometimes assemble their own bombs and guns. They are superior in their tireless will to fight and their deep conviction that they are fighting for what is right.
Unlike the soldiers in the military. According to analysts, this is also a reason why the military is currently weaker than it has been since the coup almost three years ago. The military’s narrative of being invincible has been shattered in the past six weeks.
Soldiers keep defecting to the rebels. “Our goal is to end the evil military dictatorship in Myanmar,” affirms Raymi. “If we continue to fight together like we are at the moment, then we can defeat the military.”
When the war is over, he and the others want to go back to their old lives, as math teachers, cooks or hairdressers.
Jennifer Johnston, ARD Singapore, tagesschau, December 14, 2023 1:05 p.m