The Myanmar prisoner who regained his freedom—with a spoon

For generations, Myanmar dissidents have lived in fear of the country’s military-run interrogation centres. Many who enter these places never come out alive; and those who do often bear lifelong physical and psychological scars from their ordeal. One such man-made hell is the Nine Mile interrogation camp in Mayangone Township, in the northern outskirts of Yangon. It was here that Nay Yeik, a resistance fighter from Pyapon Township in the Ayeyarwady Delta, was held for seven days, until his remarkable escape three years ago. Like countless others in Myanmar, Nay Yeik’s journey from ordinary youth to revolutionary began in February 2021. Although Pyapon is regarded as a stronghold of military loyalists, many residents took part in anti-coup protests. Nay Yeik, whose mother was an active member of the ousted ruling party, the National League for Democracy, was among them. Shocked at the brutality of the junta’s response to these peaceful demonstrations, Nay Yeik decided to flee to the north, to Karen National Union (KNU) Brigade 2 territory in eastern Bago Region, to receive military training to fight back against the regime. But rather than join others on the frontlines of a conflict that was spreading across much of the country, especially in the north, Nay Yeik turned back south, to Myanmar’s largest city Yangon, to become an urban guerilla. “The junta’s actions were becoming increasingly savage, so many young people were heading to the jungles to join the resistance. But I chose the urban guerrilla path, because I believed it was the best way for me to make a meaningful impact,” he told Myanmar Now during a recent interview. For the next 13 months, he served in a Special Task Force set up by the National Unity Government (NUG). As a specialist in crafting remotely detonated mines and bombs, he took part in Operation Pyan Hlwar Aung (Victorious Swallow), Operation Nan Htike Aung, and other key missions. During this time, he faced many tense moments, knowing that the junta was constantly on the lookout for people like him. The worst came in April 2022, when a taxi driver who suspected him of belonging to the resistance informed on him. This led to a narrow escape that ended up involving spending a night in a sewer, with junta troops in hot pursuit. After this terrifying episode, he left Yangon for a time to lay low. But months later, he was back and ready to return to action. Nay Yeik shows the clothes he wore when he escaped from the Nine Mile interrogation camp in Yangon’s Mayangone Township (Photo: Saw Reh) Capture and torture It was in early August of that year that his luck finally ran out. He had gone to a bus stop in Yangon’s Hlaing Tharyar Township to hand over two grenades he had made to another member of an urban guerrilla group. As he was sending his location to his contact on his phone, some men in civilian clothes approached him. He attempted to run, but a bus blocked his way. Soon he was in handcuffs, with a bag pulled over his head, being dragged him away to a waiting car. The torture began as soon as they were inside the vehicle. His captors beat him repeatedly on the head, knees, shins, and knuckles as they demanded to know where he made the grenades. Before taking him to the interrogation centre, they forced him to show them exactly where he worked. But Nay Yeik, following an agreed-upon plan, did not reveal the real location. So when soldiers went to the site he identified but failed to find any explosives, he was subjected to further beatings. “They grabbed my head and slammed it against the wall, striking it with a steel ruler,” Nay Yeik said. Eventually, he was forced to tell them what they wanted to know. They found enough materials for nearly 30 mines, and locked him up for further interrogation. The Nine Mile interrogation camp covers an area of nearly 300 acres, enclosed by Pyay Road to the west, Okkar Road to the north, Radio Station Road to the northeast, Thukha Road to the east, and Masoeyein Road to the south. It was within this massive torture complex that Nay Yeik was held in a nine-foot-by-nine-foot cell between interrogation sessions. It contained a small cotton mattress, a pillow, a bottle of water, and two empty bottles for him to urinate in. The only other items were three rocks, a red brick, and a blood-stained bandage. When he was taken out for interrogation, his hands were cuffed behind his back and he was forced to keep his head bowed as he was repeatedly beaten. But his interrogators also offered incentives for cooperation. “They tried to coax me, saying they would give me a blanket if I cooperated, and later a bed if I answered their questions easily—things like that,” Nay Yeik said. On the third day, instead of being taken for interrogation, he was given a phone to reach out to other resistance members. “They told me to arrange a materials exchange—to tell members of our group where to find some items and where to send them. When I did, I included a secret code known only to our comrades. That’s how I let them know I had been captured,” Nay Yeik said. Nay Yeik at a jungle camp in Bago Region (Photo: Saw Reh) Finding a way out In his cell, Nay Yeik got into the habit of using a rock to idly chip away at the wooden base holding the iron bars in place. To his surprise, a piece of the wood broke off. It was at that moment that he began to think that it might actually be possible to escape. To do this, however, he would need a more effective cutting tool. So the next time he was taken out of his cell, he snatched a metal spoon that he sharpened by scraping on the cement floor. “Once I did this, I was able to work five or six times as fast. I cut the wood both vertically and horizontally,” he said. It helped that the wood was old and rotten. To further soften it, he poured water over it during the day, using the bottle of drinking water given to him by his guard. This also proved highly effective. The moment of truth came at around 11pm on August 10, seven days after his capture. The power went out and a generator came on, humming in the darkness. The sound gave him a chance to finish the job of cutting through the wood without being heard. Once he was satisfied that he had removed enough of the base, he started pulling at the iron bars, using the cloth bandage to help him to get a grip. When some of the bars actually came loose, allowing him to remove them and create a hole just big enough to slip through, he was ecstatic. But he wasn’t free yet. He had managed to get out of his cell, but was still trapped inside the prison. He climbed up as high as he could get to scan for an escape route, but did not see any way out. “Sweat poured down my face as panic gripped me. I pushed up against the ceiling, unsure what to do next. If they caught me now, I’d be dead. I even considered going back to the cell and acting as if nothing had happened,” Nay Yeik said. At that moment, it started to rain. Seeing drops seeping through a crack nearly a foot wide along the tiled roof, he realised he might be able to break through it to escape. “The generator was still running. I squatted, raised my hands above my head, straightened my back, and pushed. The roof groaned three times loudly then finally gave way,” he recounted. Once again, he was amazed at his luck. He crawled through the space that had opened up and lifted himself up onto the roof. From there, he used a ladder from the water tank to scale down the outer wall of the prison. He was now free, but not yet in the clear. The prison officers would soon realise that he was gone, and when they did, they would begin hunting for him, like predators stalking their prey. And so he ran, wasting no time in getting as far away from there as possible. A map shows Nay Yeik’s escape route from the Nine Mile interrogation camp in Mayangone Township, where he was held and tortured for seven days in August 2022 On the run He headed toward North Okkalapa Township, guided by the sound of chanting from the well-known Thatbyinnyu Temple. This involved swimming across three lakes and walking more than three miles. To help him get himself across the largest of the lakes, he used a large piece of blue styrofoam as a flotation device. “I didn’t know exactly where I was, but I knew I had to keep moving. I heard chanting in Pali, and just followed the sound,” he said. He said he encountered three dogs along the way, but luckily none of them barked at him. He crossed Thukha Road near Thatbyinnyu Temple and then took Radio Station Road. After that, he followed the railway track to Mayangon Ward 5. He had planned to escape on a YBS-64 bus, but then realised that he didn’t have the fare. When morning dawned, he asked a woman who was just opening her fried rice stall for money, but was turned away. “When I told her I was in trouble and needed some money, she said, ‘What are you talking about? Business is bad, I have nothing… go away.’ It was the saddest moment of my life,” he said. The next person he asked was a woman selling betel. She gave him 200 kyat, but that was still 100 kyat short of the bus fare. He then approached a man and explained honestly that he was a resistance fighter on the run. The man gave him 150 kyat and a mask. With that, he boarded the bus and made his escape from Yangon. It took eight days for him to finally reach a People’s Defence Force (PDF) camp in KNU Brigade 6 territory. But even here, he was not completely free. After he arrived, he was kept under watch for some time due to suspicion that he was actually a junta infiltrator. “I knew I would be suspected, but it still troubled me, as I had walked a righteous path,” he said. In the end, he was welcomed by his new comrades. Now, three years later, he serves with Company 4 of PDF Battalion 3702 in Bago Region, which is part of the NUG’s Military Region 2. His team, known as “Project Home,” produces essential equipment. He leads the production unit, which manufactures forward-deployed mines, contact-detonation systems for drop bombs, and gear such as backpacks, hammocks, bulletproof vests, gun slings, and ammunition pouches. Nay Yeik also hopes to publish a book about his escape. He intends to use the earnings to develop an ultralight trike, a type of lightweight aircraft. Even after all that he has been through, he says there is no question of ending his involvement in the armed resistance movement. “Our belief is simple: fulfilling our revolutionary duty means either dying or seeing the revolution succeed. Until one of these happens, we stay committed to the resistance.”

The Myanmar prisoner who regained his freedom—with a spoon

Three years after making a daring escape from one of the junta’s notorious interrogation centres, a young resistance fighter remains as defiant as ever

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