Episode #128: Chinland’s Forgotten War
“The greatest tragedy of Myanmar as a country is that it gets the headline for a week or two, and then it generally gets buried, because so many other things are happening,” Matt Davis explains. With this in mind, Matt decided to head to Chin State, one of the regions where the conflict has been among the worst, and report on the resistance movement. His work ultimately resulted in a feature on Australia Broadcasting Corporation’s popular current affairs program, Foreign Correspondent. Titled “On the Frontline of Myanmar's Forgotten Civil War,” Matt spoke to doctors, teachers, pastors, students, fighters, and others to better understand the shape of the conflict, and his trip was also published in an article for ABC as well.
“It's got everything you could want,” Matt said about the enveloping civil war, “You've got an evil dictator, you've got secret financial institutions, you’ve got Russian guns and a Chinese border.” Yet even with such a variety of compelling storylines, Matt has been confounded by the scarce coverage in the international media, and was determined to find some way he could use his journalistic background to better highlight the struggle. “There were times in this process where, I hate to admit it, but I struggled with sleep sometimes, when I'm tossing and turning, going ‘How do I get this thing out?’” And given where he was reporting from, the story seemed all the more urgent, as he noted, “We have a very serious revolutionary war going on here in our backyard in Australia!”
Matt was not new to covering Myanmar. He had written stories about the rise of hip hop culture as early as 2007, and even brought in skateboards from Bangkok at one point to introduce the trend. However, as much of his past reporting was in the cities, he found that the reality the countryside was quite a different experience. He traveled from India to Chin State, and it was quite a journey. “It’s surreal,” Matt notes about the difference, “you're in a thriving city: houses, power, cars, all the modern conveniences, and then you're inside Chin State, sleeping on dirt floors again, scrounging for a bit of power from the local church generator for a couple of hours with the batteries, and driving 12 hours to go about 30 to 40 miles to get from A to B because there had been a landslide across the road.”
Even before the coup, the Chin region was known as the poorest and least developed in the country. And after the military seized power, they have been especially hard-hit, with towns destroyed by airstrikes, villages burned to the ground, summary executions, alleged crimes against humanity committed by Burmese soldiers, and thousands of refugees on the run. Yet despite the overall poor infrastructure and challenging conditions, Matt experienced an incredible generosity shown to him as a guest, and saw real resilience in the people as they continued to resist a professional military against all odds. He also observed a attitudinal sea change in contrasting his previous visits to the country, “just that overwhelming sense of outrage” that they could otherwise have a better future. Although that wasn’t guaranteed, Matt says that there was at least “a better future on the horizon. There was a better way forward for Myanmar.”
Matt was also struck by how many ordinary young people from all walks of life had chosen to leave behind these once brighter futures and learn how to stand up to the military’s aggressions. “I don't think anyone chooses to join a revolution,” he points out sadly. “No one wants war in their life. But for these young ones, I think the sacrifice is what they're prepared to make, to make sure that this is the last time this idea of a coup can never happen, that the military can somehow come into their lives and take it over.” As one example of this kind of resilient spirit looking only towards victory, Matt recalls meeting a mother whose son had been injured attempting to disarm a landmine. When asking about her concern for her son in returning to the front, the mother was resolute that everyone must be willing to sacrifice, no matter what the risks. “As a parent myself, to think that I would just be prepared to give away my children to this situation was a real moment,” Matt says. “It did show just how committed and unified the people state were in this sort of struggle.”
As the military continues to commit one atrocity after another, perhaps in the hopes of cowing the people into submission, Matt observed in his time in Chin state that the opposite is in fact unfolding. “It's like [the military] thinks they're going crush people’s spirit, but no, they're just bringing more people together!” Indeed, beyond the resistance fighters, Matt was impressed how people from all walks of life have come out to do whatever is necessary for survival, from the women cooking meals, to the schoolteachers supervising children, to the kids, themselves, collecting firewood. “There's this real sense of opportunity to defeat this professional army with Russian-provided arms!”
Along with this optimistic outlook, Matt also sees signs that the nature of conflict on the ground is changing as well. “We've gone from the people being this underdog, who are used to being crushed and suppressed, to potentially seeing the Tatmadaw with a much more defensive strategy, just holding space, where they are trying their best not to get caught out in the fields. In Chinland, where my young fighters who have surrounded the military out there, they say, ‘It's like wolf hunting! We know our land, we know the mountains, so if they come out here, we just follow them, and we'll shoot them.’”
While Matt is inspired to see how normal civilians have managed to effectively resist their own military, he is disheartened by the continued lack of support from beyond Myanmar’s borders. “No one's questioning the supply of weapons to the Ukrainian Defense Force,” he notes. “No one's questioning the supply of finances for Ukraine. In fact, it's billions, if not trillions of dollars, plus the most highly advanced weapons on the planet! So is there a reason those conversations can't be had about Myanmar? I'm not sure. I think it's a question that we should ask of our governments, and to be prepared to demand that they do more.” As support and solidarity has been shown to Ukraine from many directions, Matt relays how some Burmese can’t understand why they haven’t received even a small part of such sympathy, and have begun to ask, “What about us?” He calls attention to the powerful expression of one Chin human rights activist during the documentary, who breaks the fourth wall by directing his comments towards the democratic countries when he demands, “Get your act together!”
Matt also discusses the Chin individuals he profiled in his film. He was particularly moved by Amos and Rebecca, a doctor and nurse couple who immediately joined CDM, and then offered their services to those attacked by the military. This was all while Rebecca was pregnant! Eventually they took over an abandoned building and became the only outlet offering medical support in the entire area, though with hardly any supplies available. He also mentions a young farmer who, for the first time, shot and killed a Burmese soldier. He confided to Matt that he was not cold-blooded enough because he could not yet shake the trauma of taking a life. He then describes Emily, a 22-year-old law student who was studying in Yangon and had aspirations to go into politics and used to enjoy karaoke and wandering through shopping malls. Things have changed her, as well.
“She headed up to the mountains with a few of her girlfriends, and they've joined in the army. They've had training, and they know how to fire weapons. She says to me, ‘If we win, we win. If we die, we die together. This is it for us.’ She was showing me about how she has learned to use the gun and how women are playing an important role in the revolution as well. She wanted no one to forget their sacrifice, so when the people finally win, the women's role will be even higher again. That’s a cool thing, because it's fairly patriarchal society. So these young ones are saying, ‘This is our moment to step up and be part of this revolution.’”
What Matt is observing in Chin State is perhaps a microcosm of the wider movement now taking place across the country, and even outside, to support the emerging democracy movement. “What we're seeing now, globally, and within the country, for the first time, is this unification of these different ethnic groups,” he says. “There is only one goal now: that is to remove the military and restore democracy to the country of Myanmar. So that’s… what gives me hope that things might change. But it may still take some time, particularly if they're not supported by the international community.”