Myanmar rebels are liberating the area – to lead the next war | Political Affairs

Karen State, Myanmar – Thaw Hti was a small speck among the march of hundreds of thousands who took to the streets of Yangon in 2021, demanding a return to democracy after Myanmar's military took power.

“We had billboards with signs and they had guns,” he said, bitterly recounting the events of March 2021.

In the past four years, a lot has changed for Thaw Hti and his generation in Myanmar.

After the military killed hundreds of people in the bloody protests of those pro-democracy protests, young people fled to the territory controlled by the armed ethnic groups in the regions bordering Myanmar with Thailand, India and China.

Thaw Hti also left.

Partly Karen, her choice was obvious.

He sought refuge in the Karen National Union – the oldest armed group in Myanmar, which has been fighting for political independence for the Karen people since the 1940s in eastern Myanmar's Karen State, also known as Kayin State.

Speaking during an interview with Al Jazeera in Karen State recently, Thaw Hti told how angry he was at the military taking over and wanted to become a rebel soldier.

All newcomers to the KNU compound had to undergo survival training, which included weapons training, long-distance marching in rugged terrain and basic self-defense.

Shooting the gun, Thaw Hti remembers, gave him a sense of power after watching soldiers kill protesters he was working with.

Now, his face breaks into a big smile when he says: “I like guns”.

But, being short and thin, he struggled to complete even a basic survival course and knew he would not pass the KNU's actual military training.

“I came here to participate in the revolution but as a woman, there are many barriers,” she said.

“Mentally I want to do it but physically I can't.”

Studies of oppression

With a Karen education background and speaking skills, Thaw Hti and her husband instead opened a KNU-approved school where they teach more than 100 children who have been displaced by the conflict.

The school is hidden in the jungle in eastern Myanmar because of the military's tendency to launch airstrikes on similar Karen government services – including schools and hospitals. The bombings aim to destroy the emerging governance structures that lend legitimacy to Karen independence.

Unlike schools under the military regime, Thaw Hti explained that his school teaches children in the Karen language and teaches a Karen-centric version of Myanmar history that includes the decades of oppression the Karen have faced, often left out of the official narrative.

The Karen have fought for independence for decades, but as new, pro-democracy forces clash with tribal armed groups, the Karen's long-running war with Myanmar's military – the majority, the Bamar army – has exploded.

Especially in the past year, the military has lost large areas along the border – including almost all of Rakhine State in the west and northern Shan State in the east – as well as large parts of Kachin State in the north, and more. of Karen State.

But as fighters take up more and more territory, they face a new challenge: managing it.

Complementary management

Captured by the military in March, Kyaikdon in Karen state has survived airstrikes that have hit other major cities that have been conquered by opposition forces.

When Al Jazeera visited Kyaikdon recently, the town's restaurants were full of Karen villagers and soldiers eating Burmese curry. Shops were open and selling traditional Karen household items and fabrics, while the main road was heaving with traffic.

Soe Khant, 33, who is the director of this town appointed by KNU, said that he has big plans for the vacated land.

“I would like to complete public works, install electricity and water and clean plastic and overgrown areas,” said Soe Khant, who was officially appointed as interim manager, as elections are scheduled after one year.

He agrees that he ended up being chosen more, rather than being chosen.

“If that is what the people want, I will take office. If they choose someone else, I will pass it,” he told Al Jazeera.

Soe Khant said the military regime “has completely ignored the people of this city”.

Growing up in Kyaikdon, Soe Khant told how he would walk up a hill near the town with his friend.

From there they sketched a cluster of buildings around a dirt highway, a meandering river that runs through farmland, and the nearby mountains that form the border of Thailand.

When he grew up, he turned to photography, making a living from wedding photos.

But when the COVID-19 pandemic hit Myanmar in 2020, he answered another call, launching a social organization.

After the military coup, the situation worsened.

“The health care system is not working, so my friends and I volunteered to help take care of people,” she said.

Although Soe Khant is new to the business of shared governance, KNU has been doing this for years – albeit often in small rural pockets.

'We go fast, but we don't go too fast'

Kawkareik township secretary Mya Aye served as the village's tract leader for 12 years before being appointed to her current role, which is the third largest in the township.

He told Al Jazeera how years of war and a lack of resources have disrupted the local economy and undermined KNU's ability to provide public services.

“There are no factories, there are no industries, you cannot work here to support your family,” he explained, explaining that because of the conflicts and difficulties, young people will move to live near Thailand.

But the brutality of a military regime is often its worst enemy.

It inspired strong opposition and drove human resources into the arms of its enemies.

Former Myanmar policeman Win Htun, 33, joined the KNU instead of following orders to arrest and torture pro-democracy activists.

“I always wanted to be a police officer since I was young,” said Win Htun.

“I believed that the police were good and tried to help people,” he said, adding that the reality is a culture of corruption, discrimination and impunity.

Win Htun, who is a member of the majority Bamar tribe in Myanmar, said that the police chiefs mistreated their Karen colleagues.

“If one of them made a small mistake, he would give him a very severe punishment,” recounted how a Karen official returned to the camp an hour late and was put in custody for 24 hours.

Win Htun said he submitted his resignation letters many times during his 10 years in the police force. Each time they were rejected.

After the coup in 2021, he fled with his wife and daughter to Karen-controlled territory, where he underwent a thorough background check and a period of “trust-building” surveillance.

He is now fully integrated with the KNU police.

Reacting to the brutality of the military and the feeling that the revolution is about to win, educated young professionals, such as Thaw Hti, and people who have been working in the government for many years, such as Win Htun, have come to fill the human resource gaps in the organization's management. recently released areas.

But most thought that the military coup would last only a few months or, at least, a few years.

Despite a series of defeats and other unprecedented setbacks, the army managed to hold on.

“It's like running on a treadmill,” said Thaw Hti about the benefits of the transition but the continued shortcomings.

“We feel like we're going that fast, but we're not going very far,” he said.