Since the military coup, Kyaw Yan, 31, has spent countless moments wondering what happened to his older brother. Thein Htay Aung, 36, was forced to join the military some 15 years ago and the two men have been estranged ever since.
As the youngest of six brothers, Kyaw Yan chose his own path, one that led him in the other direction, deep into the resistance. He enlisted in the Danu People’s Liberation Army (DPLA), a two-year-old armed group based in Shan State.
For five months, Kyaw Yan fought alongside the DPLA, all the while knowing that his brother, Thein Htay Aung, was on the other side of the war, wearing the enemy’s uniform. Thein Htay Aung had been stationed at Artillery Command 902 in Tawnghkam, Nawnghkio Township—miles away from their childhood home in Budalin, Sagaing Region.
Though Kyaw Yan was also stationed in Nawnghkio with the DPLA, he never expected their paths to cross. And then on February 4, everything changed.
After an intense firefight with junta troops in war-torn Nawnghkio, Kyaw Yan and his fellow resistance fighters rounded up a group of surviving junta soldiers. Five prisoners, their hands bound and eyes covered, sat in a circle awaiting interrogation. The group sat quietly in their dirt-streaked uniforms, stripped of power and command.
Kyaw Yan studied their faces. Then the world seemed to tilt.
There, among the captives, was Thein Htay Aung. Now a corporal in the junta’s army. His own brother.
“I was shocked,” Kyaw Yan told Myanmar Now. “I was happy to see my brother. But seeing him in that state, with his hands tied up, it broke my heart.”
Kyaw Yan was the youngest of six siblings; Thein Htay Aung was the third son. Their father had died when Kyaw Yan was just an infant, leaving their mother to raise them alone, selling goods at the market to survive.
Hoping to give her sons a better future, she sent them both to Yaung Chi Oo Monastery to study as novice monks. But the paths they eventually chose led them to opposite sides of the battlefield.
Thein Htay Aung left the monkhood at age 20. Soon after he was forcibly recruited into the Myanmar military and lost contact with his family. After about three years, he finally got in touch with his mother in a letter to explain what had happened.
Kyaw Yan dropped out in ninth grade, opting to pursue various labor jobs to support the family. In debt, they sold their house and land to pay off their heavy debts and permanently moved to Nawnghkio, where Thein Htay Aung was known to be stationed.
Thein Htay Aung would send money back home, supporting her and her family with 150,000 to 200,000 kyat ($90 US dollars) when he could.
When the Myanmar military seized power in 2021, unleashing a wave of arrests and killings, armed resistance spread across the country. By mid-2024, the fighting had reached Nawnghkio, forcing Kyaw Yan’s family to flee as artillery fire and airstrikes devastated the town. Alongside other displaced villagers, they escaped seeking refuge wherever they could find safety.
Before fighting broke out in the town, Thein Htay Aung would visit his elderly mother. During these occasions he would switch out his military uniform for civilian clothes.
Fearing that the worst would eventually happen, Kyaw Yan and his mother repeatedly urged Thein Htay Aung to defect from the junta with his weapons and join the resistance forces.
“If someone defects with complete weapons, they even get reward money,” Kyaw Yan said. “Those who come over to our side are welcomed properly.”
Despite knowing that they may come face to face in war, his mother would instruct him to not hesitate in battle.
“Don’t show mercy, fight to the death if you have to. Your brother won’t know it’s you shooting from far away,’” Kyaw Yan said, recalling his mother’s words.
“She told me: ‘If you go to the frontline, never think about whether your brother might be there. Don’t let thoughts about being brothers enter your mind.’”
Htun Naing, founder of the DPLA, said the junta soldiers fought until the last moment, before finally surrendering.
“For officers, warrant officers and rank-and-file soldiers under the junta, if they don’t want to choose the path of death, their only option is to defect,” Htun Naing told Myanmar Now. “If they can’t defect, I urge them to escape however they can.”
It’s unclear if Thein Htay Aung will join the resistance, or what will happen to him as a prisoner of war, but Kyaw Yan is glad to be reunited with him nonetheless. In a video shared on social media, the brothers are seen embracing. Thein Htay Aung, sun-darkened, bruised, and bound as a prisoner, appears discouraged, but still forces a smile.
Contemplating the remarkable reunion, Kyaw Yan realised that if the roles were reversed, his chances of survival would be slim. Instead of a moment of joy, their reunion in the hands of the regime would be filled with suffering and possibly death.
“I want him to gain the right perspective, and then fight alongside us,” Kyaw Yan said. “Fighting together will make us stronger. I will become stronger too. I’ve always wanted this for my brother.”
