Inside the jungle, somewhere along the border between Myanmar and Thailand, they fear for their lives. Here rages the bloody civil war the world has almost forgotten and which has forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee. The coup plotters in Myanmar use brutal violence and military force to break the democratic resistance movement. – When they started the attack on my village, I did not see my family. Everyone ran. My mother and brothers were at home while I was out. We were separated and ended up in different places, says Saw Die Moe. He fled to Thailand from his village in Myanmar just a few months ago. – We could hear heavy weapons and shooting during the fight. The loud ones, both the weapons and the shooting. We had to run for our lives, says Saw Die Moe. Saw Moe Di fled from Myanmar to Mae Sot in Thailand after attacking his village. Amnesty issued a report in June describing the regime’s collective punishment for burning and bombing villages. Panic took over Daw Aye has become a surrogate mother for the village boy Saw Moe Di. news does not use their full and real names for security reasons. Now they live in a so-called “safe house” in Mae Sot. On the floor of the house there are straw mats on the ground floor. The whole floor is a large bare room. The concrete is raw and moist. Daw Aye belonged to the civil resistance movement in the cities and refused to show up for the job she had in the state after the coup. After a few months, she fled to a village. There she was safe for a year. One day in December, the military attacked the village. First with light weapons then with heavy weapons. Saw Moe Di helped as she froze in fear and panic. – It was scary. I froze. Could not move my legs. A soldier came towards me and then I managed to run, she says. Daw Aye worked in the state. After the coup, she refused to show up for work, and sought refuge in a village in Myanmar. Now she lives in Thailand. Photo: Philip Lote / news – Saw Moe Di said “aunt be strong” while we ran. I was so scared. I had heard of soldiers going in and out of villages, but I had never experienced anything like that before. Along the roads towards the border with Myanmar from Thailand, some of the roads are paved. Others are gravel roads or just hard-packed clay that will flow out when the monsoon rains will fall from the sky again a little later in the evening. This is the terrain refugees and migrant workers must take over if they try to cross from Myanmar to Thailand. In the so-called safe house, the refugees play football tennis. Photo: Philip Lote / news The opposition operates in exile After the military coup in 2021, the deposed government in Myanmar established a civilian unity government that operates in secret. – It is common behavior among dictators that they want to create fear in the population with weapons and forces. So they use the forces for cold-blooded massacres and bombings, says Nay Phone Latt to news. He is a spokesman for Myanmar’s coalition government in exile. Nay Phone Latt belongs to the government in exile. Photo: Philip Lote / news They have offices and people in Europe, USA, India, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. They also operate from changing places in the jungle and in secret places inside Myanmar. The coup plotters have met with surprisingly strong armed resistance Those who take up the fight against the military regime and hide in or near the villages are guerrilla groups from ethnic minorities and young people who have fled from the cities and out into the jungle. The willingness and ability to attack the coup plotters’ military bases and police stations has surprised and frustrated the military regime in Myanmar. The government in exile has gradually tried to capture, organize and help these young people who are fighting with weapons. Myanmar Myanmar was formerly called Burma and borders Thailand, China, India, Laos and Bangladesh. The military seized power in 1961. In 2014, a partial democracy was re-established. On February 1 last year, the country’s generals set aside the peace and reconciliation project and again seized power in the country. Myanmar’s Democratic leader, Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi was arrested and is now in solitary confinement. She has already been sentenced to 11 years in prison and several sentences are pending. Aung San Suu Kyi, who is now 76 years old, does not have free access to a lawyer. The next trials will take place inside a prison and not in a courthouse. In recent weeks, there has been an escalation of a brutal war and repression of those fighting for the restoration of democracy in Myanmar. The coup of the military junta was condemned by the UN and a number of Western countries. Neighboring China has not condemned the coup, but has asked the military junta to begin talks with its opponents. The military junta’s spokesman has stated that dialogue is not out of the question. Mom is only 30 minutes away from Saw Moe Di, who says he recently turned 18, is only miles from his family. But there is a border in between that prevents them from meeting. Civilians are displaced to refugee camps that cling to the shores of the Myanmar side of the border. People cross back and forth by wading or swimming across the river. In Myanmar on the border with Thailand, refugee camps have been set up. Photo: FANG YONGBIN / news The military regime often calls those who fight them terrorists. The regime’s chief of staff recently said they would annihilate those fighting against them. The place where Saw Moe Di lives in Thailand is no more than 30 minutes drive kilometers away from the tenant where Sa Moe Di’s mother lives. – I miss my mother and everyone I love. I miss my hometown Lay Kay Kaw.
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Saw Moe Di was divorced from mother and siblings – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
