‘No home, no safety’: Voices from a country at war

Five years after Myanmar’s 2021 coup, the country has settled into a grim rhythm: warplanes pound homes, schools, and monasteries from above, while soldiers on the ground raid villages, killing and arresting at will. Since the 2021 coup, Myanmar has been ripped apart by a full-blown civil war that has killed more than 7,000 people and displaced over 3.6 million. The true toll is likely far higher, according to both the United Nations and the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP).Alongside massive displacement caused by the war, waves of political upheaval since 1988 and 1990—culminating in the 2021 coup—have also driven mass migration and a severe brain drain, as thousands have fled persecution and violence under military rule. Brutality was turned into a weapon of war. The state itself became the enemy, forcing people to flee for their lives. Those who lived through earlier crackdowns say the situation in Myanmar today is even worse than those in past eras. On January 9, the junta launched airstrikes on Kyauk Ni Maw Village, Rakhine State, killing at least 40 people and injuring dozens of others. (Photo: AFP) ‘Conscription followed me’Thar Gyi, 43, is just one of tens of thousands of people who was forced to flee the country as the junta’s grip tightened. In August, 2024, he escaped western Myanmar’s Rakhine State to avoid the junta’s arrest. Starting in late 2023, civilians in Rakhine State began to experience what Thar Gyi calls a state of alarm: “A crow living in danger,” he says, adding that worsening security and a devastated economy is making things worse. Caught between the Arakan Army (AA), a powerful ethnic armed organisation, and the military junta. He felt he had no choice but to leave. “Day by day, the city of Sittwe was worsening in all aspects,” Thar Gyi told Myanmar Now.“Life in Sittwe felt like the life of a crow, eating and living in danger, worrying when they will come and arrest you,” he said. Around 10 pm one night in August 2024, a junta convoy of 15 trucks stormed Min Gan ward in Sittwe, rounding up men they accused of belonging to the AA. For Thar Gyi, it was the last straw. “The night was already dead, with neither light nor sound as there was no electricity,” he said. “When they entered, I could hear their shouts, breaking into houses in the distance as I read a book by candle light.” He said it was too late to run, so he crawled into the backyard and hid among the taro plants. From there, he watched soldiers ransack houses and arrest men, stopping to eat and drink from shops without paying. He said they acted with complete impunity, even beating his 70-year-old deaf neighbor for not hearing their orders.Hours later, they left the ward, but Thar Gyi already had suffered from mild paralysis as he was in the knee-deep water for almost all night, crouching down with only head above the water. “My whole body was under the water except my mouth, ears and eyes. It was 3:30am in the morning when they left. But I could not feel my right hand anymore.”Thar Gyi then called out to neighbors to help him out. But he said that the junta had terrorised all of Rakhine, believing that everyone regardless of age or background are members of the AA. According to Thar Gyi, at least 50 men were arrested in a single night, who were later charged under the counterterrorism law. The raid occurred just after the Byine Phyu incident where 300 locals were arrested in May during a bloody junta raid on Byine Phyu village in Sittwe, a village adjacent to Sittwe. “They had terrorised us all,” he said. “We could not even live in our own house. Our homes were no longer safe. There is no safety for us.”He said that once the sun goes down, “the night turns into a nightmare,” with a lack of sleep from anxiety plaguing the community. “It was so unfair and unjust. I didn’t want to live under them, I thought to instead end my own life.” Junta forces seen in Taungoo Township, Bago Region on February 28, 2021 (Supplied) In the days that followed, Thar Gyi fled to Yangon. But even there, the 43-year-old was not safe: he was conscripted twice in different parts of the city. He said the public has no safety or freedom, and the junta’s conscription law has only worsened life nationwide, whether in Rakhine State, Karen State or Yangon, people are being forced into service. He said he tried moving to avoid recruitment, but conscription caught up with him twice in just four months, leaving him with no choice but to flee the country. Officials notified him that he could be taken at any time—within a week or a month—for military service.“Nobody wants to leave their home or flee to another country,” he said. “Even animals don’t want to leave their own home or nest.” Children from an IDP camp in Demoso Township, Karenni State, in October 2023 (AFP) ‘Want to go home, but scared’ Like Thar Gyi, Mar Si and her younger sister were forced to flee their home in Bago Region after junta warplanes repeatedly bombarded their village. “It was late at night when a Myanmar military fighter jet came to bomb our village,” said a 13-year-old girl from Myit Thar village, Let Pan Tan, in Bago region. “Along with many people and adults, I ran to the forest. We slept in the bush,” Mar Si recalled. When asked about fleeing into the night, Mar Si said she felt a mix of emotions—frightened yet oddly exhilarated as she ran alongside others. Mar Si fled her village five times before her grandparents, fearing for their safety, sent her and her younger sister to Mae Sot in 2024 to join their parents working in a factory. The sisters are now in fifth grade at Pan Pyo Let, a migrant learning centre founded by former professor Daw Khin Hla, which hosts more than 20 children displaced by Myanmar’s war. For Mar Si, the school brings relief and happiness away from immediate danger, though she still longs for home and the friends she left behind. “I am happy studying here, but I miss my childhood friends. When talking with them on the phone, I can’t hold my tears,” Mar Si said with tears in her eyes. “I want to go back home, but I am scared to go back home.” Government civil servants boycotted the Myanmar military coup by joining the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) in 2021 (Photo: Supplied) Dashed hope Khin Hla, 59, a former professor and award-winning civil servant under the previous civilian government, left behind a 28-year career to join the civil disobedience movement in protest of the military. “I was quite content with my life. And I was excited for my retirement days, anticipating travelling and an easy life,” she said. “All of which dashed away after the coup.” The last university she was assigned was Taungok University in southern Rakhine State, where she taught history as a professor until she secretly left the university to join the movement in Yangon, where she also took part in mass protests. “Only with clothes on my body, I along with a few other colleagues sneaked out of the university and took a ride to Yangon,” she said. The 59-year-old former professor is one of many civil servants who has resigned from their position against the 2021 military coup led by Sen-Gen Min Aung Hlaing who ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s government for alleged voter fraudulence. “I joined the movement because I never liked the dictatorship. And I wanted to stand for justice,” she said firmly as she sat on a bench under a tree in front of the school. Despite how she had anticipated her retirement life, sudden turnover of the country’s politics – from democratic government to military regime – cost her career and her life, eventually forcing her to flee to Maesot, Thai-Myanmar border town as the junta chased after her. Following her resignation, the junta sent a letter suggesting that they are going to investigate her. The word investigation, they only meant “the arrest”, she said. “With that, the risk of being arrested haunted me to the point I could not sleep anymore – I was on the edge constantly,” she told Myanmar Now. IDPs from Pauktaw Township, Rakhine State, take shelter inside a monastery in November 2023 (AFP) In limbo Khin Hla thought she had escaped the risk of the arrest, only to realise that another form of risk awaits—the Thai authorities. Before joining Pan Pyo Let, the migrant learning centre, Khin Hla had worked for a coin producing factory. As an older former professor, she couldn’t match the output of younger factory workers and was relegated to errands. In September 2022, while cutting tomatoes in the kitchen, Thai police raided the factory and arrested 40 Burmese workers, many of them fellow Civil Disobedience Member (CDM) activists.“Many were transferred to Myanmar while some were sent to Bangkok prison,” she said, adding that what happened afterwards is unclear. “They didn’t arrest me saying I am too old for the arrest.” A year of surviving on meager factory meals—just rice and soup—had already worn down her body and mind, and the constant threat of arrest left her feeling even more vulnerable.“I was overwhelmed and very depressed with my situation,” she said. “I did not look healthy, but I was trying my best to encourage myself that I have to stay alive.”She recalled feeling abandoned and close to despair, convinced she might die alone in the factory where even basic food was scarce. Unable to endure the misery and uncertainty any longer, she resolved to return home and risk arrest. Children from an IDP camp in Demoso Township, Karenni State, in October 2023 (AFP) Bridging the gap Displacement has forced many children out of school, left at home while their parents work in factories or search for income after fleeing conflict. Khin Hla says that many of them will experience a difficult future. She wakes up by 5am every morning and goes to the market to be at the school by 8am, the time migrant workers’ children arrive at school. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimates that at least two million Myanmar migrants in Thailand are formally documented—though the true figure is likely higher. Many of their children spend years without access to proper education, caught in a cycle of uncertainty and exclusion. “Without education, their future will be a misery, crippled like the blind,” Khin Hla said. Many migrant learning centres, where migrant workers’ children often study, are also often at risk of raids. In many cases, Thai authorities have conducted crackdowns, arresting teachers at schools, and exacerbating the situation even more. Despite the risks, Khin Hla explained that education for underprivileged children is far more important given their background. In many cases, their parents don’t support their studies, only seeking work opportunities and leaving them at home. “The importance of their education outweighs the risk of being arrested,” Khin Hla said. "That's why I decided to open a school although there is a risk of arrest.” She said that migrant families already face enough; poverty, deportation, or arrest. “It breaks my heart to see their life at the farm picking up corn, chillies and warding off birds at the corn field here,” she said. “We don’t want those kids to become illiterate. As they cannot afford Thai education or in Burmese, we aim to educate them regardless of money.” She painted a grim picture of post-coup Myanmar—an entire nation left to starve in the dark. “If we look forward, we can’t see our future. We have lost it ever since the coup,” she said. “I am worried about the uncertain future that looms, especially for those kids.” * Some names in this article have been changed to protect their security.

‘No home, no safety’: Voices from a country at war

Civilians describe a life of terror: bombings, arrests, and forced conscription pushes thousands to flee into Thailand’s Mae Sot town.

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