Observations from a Karenni Visit
Thomas van Linge, a Dutch journalist and conflict researcher, ventured into Myanmar, driven by a deep interest in civil uprisings and resistance movements. He began mapping Myanmar's conflict zones in 2022, marking territories of resistance and regime control. His work highlights how the military junta had lost ground due to the persistence of the resistance forces and the unity among various ethnic armed organizations (EAOs). During his fieldwork, van Linge observed the resilience of civilians despite living under dire conditions, such as displacement and the constant threat of military retaliation. He visited refugee camps where international aid was notably absent and described the collaborative, grassroots nature of resistance in Karenni State. His findings showed that the military’s power was significantly waning in Karenni, with their forces isolated in hilltop bases, surrounded by determined resistance fighters who are optimistic about eventual victory. Listen to his full discussion on our podcast.
“[The UN] wants to maintain their office in Yangon, which means that they’re at the mercy of the junta. So they only go to the areas where the regime allows them to go to, which is never the areas where they’re needed the most!”
Host: I'm very curious to understand, what is the sort of what is the physical situation of the civilians? What difficulties are they dealing with? How are they coping, but also what is in your opinion, if you can speak to the morale of the civilians and their and their outlook?
Thomas van Linge: I think first of all, the situation for the civilians is very hard. So over the past months, and years, the people of Karenni have suffered many retaliatory attacks by the junta. Almost every village we traveled was abandoned, partially destroyed, or in most cases, completely burns down by the troops of the regime.
And so many people have no option but to stay in makeshift huts, in IDP camps somewhere in Karenni State. A couple of thousand were staying in camps just across the border in Thailand, and they had been pushed back. Now the Thai authorities are not letting anyone through!
When we drove actually, the last stretch of the roads before the border, we drove to this completely abandoned refugee camp. It used to house like 10,000 refugees, but from one day to the other, the Thai border guards showed up and said they told everyone to go back. So people are really stuck with no opportunity to flee.
So they just hope for the best, and build camps under a coverage of leaves. They really have very little. When we visited an IDP camp, they offered us food, but all they could offer us was a basic rice soup. Now that the rainy season will start the situation will become even more difficult, because almost basically all the huts that we saw, are not waterproof. So rain will flood in the camp themselves will turn into this big mudslides where you wind up with a walk through the mud to get anywhere.
The most concerning thing is the prospect of malaria. With the monsoon rains come the mosquitoes and the mosquitoes bring malaria, and people simply do not have protection against mosquitoes. It's really frustrating. When you're in such an area that you see that there's no international organization present, there's no United Nations, no major organizations supporting the IDPs or people at all! As I was told later by a former UN staffer, the UN have their office in Yangon. And they want to maintain their office in Yangon, which means that they're at the mercy of the junta! So they only really go to the areas where the regime allows them to go to, which is never the areas where they're needed the most!
So In Karenni, it really feels like people are can only rely on themselves and any donations, like from their family abroad or other sympathizers or people from from the Burmese diaspora or abroad can bring them in such donations.
But despite all these all these hardships, all these difficulties, I've never seen any despair or dip in morale among the people. Maybe it’s the sort of the face they put up when they talk to a foreigner, I don't know. But to me, it didn't really feel like they're all keeping their spirits up. They all believed that, however difficult the situation, it is only temporary.
Where we visited, most of the villages have been abandoned because they are within the artillery range of the regime. But the regime itself is now isolated in the hilltop camps and could be eliminated from those bases in different perceivable future. So when those areas could be declared then the people could leave their the IDP camps and come back to their villages to start rebuilding.