Struggling resistance in Myanmar’s jungles

Eight bodies of villagers were later found, along with those of eight soldiers who were killed in battle. By the time the 77th and 99th Battalions left Yay Shin this month, little of the village in northwestern Myanmar remained, just smouldering ruins of a hamlet that had dared to take up arms against the military’s February coup. Seven months after ousting Myanmar’s elected government, the country’s fearsome army, known as the Tatmadaw, is ramping up attacks on a largely improvised armed resistance, and on the villages where its members live. It is a pattern of slaughter that the Tatmadaw has inflicted for decades on various ethnic minorities, such as the Rohingya, whose forcible expulsion from the country the United States considers to be ethnic cleansing.

Now, the Myanmar army is targeting a much broader segment of society, and its brutal campaign has galvanised a more robust resistance, even if civilians are again caught in the crossfire. Nearly everyone who lived in Yay Shin is now camped out in a forest valley rife with poisonous snakes, malaria and dengue, children whimpering from hunger and the damp cold. Residents of dozens of other villages in the Kalay region, a stronghold of opposition to the military, have also fled to the jungle, according to members of the People’s Defense Force.

“We have already given our lives for the country,” Ko Zaw Win Shein, a company commander for the rebels, said by phone from a jungle hide-out, as the thrum of army helicopters reverberated overhead. A former employee of a telecom company, Zaw Win Shein needed nearly 10 minutes to compose himself before his ragged sobs subsided to a frightened whisper. “We are more afraid of the soldiers than the snakes,” he said. Last week, a few days after the Yay Shin raid, the National Unity Government — a shadow government set up by opposition politicians — redoubled its call for an armed insurrection, announcing that “D-Day” had arrived. Duwa Lashi La, its acting president, said in a video disseminated on social media that it was time for “a nationwide uprising in every village, town and city, in the entire country at the same time.” The video seemed to galvanise a populace that is largely united against the military regime, which has gunned down more than 1,000 protesters and bystanders since the coup. Local militias issued renewed battle cries, while civilians across Myanmar expressed enthusiastic support on social media.

Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, the junta’s spokesman, dismissed the call to arms as “an empty statement.” But the Tatmadaw quickly escalated its raids on villages like Yay Shin, targeting dozens of them as it looked for members of the People’s Defense Force, residents said. On Thursday, the Tatmadaw descended on Myin Thar village, about 25 miles from Yay Shin, and rounded up males who had stayed to guard the community, armed with homemade hunting rifles. At least 17 of them, mostly boys, were killed with single shots to the head, said Ko Htay Win, a Myin Thar resident who escaped to the forest.

“I am proud that he died defending the village,” said Ma Nyo Nyo Lwin, the mother of Ko Htet Naing Oo, 18, who was among those killed. The National Unity Government has said that it had no choice but to urge an armed rebellion. Operating from hiding, the shadow authority has not convinced a single country to recognise it as legitimate, and hopes are not high that much will change when the United Nations General Assembly convenes this week. The United States and Britain have urged all parties in Myanmar to refrain from violence, as has a panel of international experts.