Myanmar rebels believe unity is key to victory against weakened military ruler | Conflict News

Myanmar Kayin State – In this small pocket of southeastern Myanmar, a young fighter looks out from the upper floors of the concrete framework of a church that villagers have spent two years building.

Zayar, a 21-year-old member of Myanmar's Muslim community who moved from the country's largest city, Yangon, to the rebel camp near the Thai border to fight against the country's military rulers, said the construction work is a slow process. Told.

This village in Kayin State (also known as Kayin) is under constant threat of military airstrikes, jobs are scarce and funds are tight.

However, the Karen people here were able to build a church little by little.

“Before, I thought the Karen people were dacoits.” [bandits]'' said Zayar, who took part in the uprising against Myanmar's military just last year.

“Now people understand the real situation,” he told Al Jazeera.

Zayar's views on the Karen people, one of Myanmar's largest ethnic minorities, are primarily from the Bamar majority, which has violently suppressed the aspirations of Myanmar's diverse ethnic groups for decades. It was shaped by derogatory depictions and stereotypes that were spread under the country's military commanders.

Dating back to the 1940s, Myanmar's military's attempts to pressure the country's ethnic minorities into submission have sparked one of the world's longest-running conflicts.

As military leaders enter their third year in power in Myanmar, an uprising that blends decades of ethnic struggles for self-determination and a recent armed struggle to restore democracy has gripped the country. envelops the part.

In October, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), based in the Mandarin-speaking region of Kokang on the border with China, along with two other powerful ethnic armed groups and Bamar fighters, launched an offensive against the army.

The cooperation, known as the “Three Brothers Alliance,” achieved an unprecedented victory over the Myanmar military, which overthrew the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021.

Resistance to the country's military rulers has now become a widespread church, and the movement's credibility and campaign has been greatly boosted by the participation of a growing number of armed groups.

However, the alliance's common objective of removing the military from power remains against the backdrop of a complex history of conflict and suspicion among numerous ethnic armed groups that the military has successfully exploited for its own interests in the past. It is.

As the alliance's offensive moves from rural areas in western, northern and eastern Myanmar to urban areas, the military is struggling to find a way back and some fear cooperation among rebel groups cannot be maintained. .

unity of purpose

Zayar shoulders his rifle and heads down the road through corn and peanut fields toward the camp. His role in the revolution embodies many of the dreams and contradictions that have come to define Myanmar's struggle.

At the urging of a friend, Zayar joined a fringe group formed by General Ner Dar Bo Mya, who broke away from the established Karen National Union (KNU) armed movement after refusing to take part in the murder investigation. Joined the Kautulai Army (KTLA). Incidents of a group of men allegedly carried out by his fighters in 2021.

Nel da Bo Mya did not deny that the killings were carried out by militants, and claimed that the 25 unarmed men were military spies.

He has also cultivated an incendiary image for his KTLA forces, appealing to young people itching to take up arms to overthrow the military dictatorship.

Both sides are at war with the military, but the KTLA also clashes with the KNU in southern Myanmar. There have also been times when KTLA fighters and soldiers under KNU command have worked together on operations.

Kim Jolliffe, a Myanmar political analyst, says unity is the most important factor in the success of the current armed rebellion.

Jolliffe said unification is necessary not only for military success but also to lay the foundations for a post-military Myanmar.

He said unity is key to moving the country from a “highly coercive, centralized state” that “creates perpetual conflict” to one where “all peoples are equal in true power-sharing mechanisms.” said.

Jollifi told Al Jazeera: “The central problem the revolution must solve is increasing diversity and controlling power so that no single group positions itself as an all-encompassing xenophobic ruler.'' It's about how we create a system that creates equilibrium.”

“Localized conflicts and tensions between resistance groups in some areas are likely to continue. However, there are no indications that they will have a fundamental impact on the overall direction of the revolution. “There are very few,” he added.

While some ethnic groups are allied with the military or remain neutral, most of the country's feared ethnic armed groups are pouring resources and troops into the current campaign against the generals.

Zayar said he risked everything for the revolution.

“Living under a dictatorship is worse than death,” he says. “I will fight back until I die.”

For Zayar, he is fighting for equality.

Some people called him “Kalar” because he practices Islam in Buddhist-majority Myanmar. This is a term used as a slur against Muslims and people of South Asian descent in Myanmar. He says his official Myanmar national identity card marks him as a “Muslim”, not only by religion but also by ethnic identity.

“I felt discriminated against when the government treated me like that,” he told Al Jazeera.

“I was born and raised in Myanmar. Of course, I am Burmese.”

Zayar joined the revolution relatively late, in April 2023, more than two years after military commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing seized power from Aung San Suu Kyi.

On the military side, the public is reluctant to fight for coup leader Min Aung Hlaing, who has committed continuous atrocities against civilians across the country since seizing power. Oversaw the chain.

News outlets such as Frontier Myanmar and Radio Free Asia have reported that the military is snatching young people from the streets at night and threatening to burn down villages as a way to attract new recruits and expand its ranks.

Post-coup military violence has led peaceful demonstrators to seek combat training under the leadership of ethnic rebels, turning once-inexperienced opponents of the regime into seasoned combatants. grown.

Movements of troops by the military have become rare. It relies primarily on air strikes and heavy weapons from fortified positions. The mass surrender by regime forces is increasingly seen as a decline in the morale of ordinary soldiers.

Dissatisfaction within the military with Min Aung Hlaing's leadership has also led to persistent rumors that the coup leader may be overthrown himself by his comrades.

In opposing camps, fighters like Zayar understand the importance of maintaining unity with other groups in the fight to liberate Myanmar from military rule.

However, there is a contradiction in the fact that Mr. Zayar and others have joined splinter armed groups such as the KTLA, which could lead to discord in the long-term war with the junta.

division and diversity

Zayar commander Ra Pho, 30, points to smoke billowing from the hillside. He said his forces had burned down and abandoned their country's outpost two days ago.

“If they hadn't, they might not have had the chance to retreat again,” Pho, a thick-set man wearing a traditional Karen tunic without sleeves and limping, told Al Jazeera. Ta.

It was a mark of his service to the Karen cause that he was wounded in the ankle by a fatal shell explosion a year ago. His work began as a child in a refugee camp, where he imitated the people he once called “the great soldiers.”

Four continues to lead the Karen fighters on the front lines. He had just returned from a two-day ambush on a military column a week ago.

He told how military reinforcements dressed up as farmers and hid guns in sacks containing corncobs. Mistaking them for civilians, Four's KTLA fighter squad allowed them to pass, but were startled by a spattering of gunfire.

“We lost some fighters and some were injured,” he said. “The soldiers of the junta know that we value the local population, so they take advantage of that.”

Under Four's command are approximately 70 men and four women of various races. Many come from cities. Armed with a combination of rifles and semi-automatic weapons, they form a formation and salute each time a vehicle enters the camp.

“I never imagined a situation where the Bamars and other ethnic groups would be under my command,'' he said, reflecting on the discord among the Karen people and expressing his hope that the KTLA and KNU could “unite as one.'' Told.

“The essence of revolution is unity,” he said. “It's a way of working as one. If the leaders stick together, the rest of the force will stick together.”

It was a call for unity against the military that led Pwe Pwe, a 28-year-old female Bamar fighter, to return to her home country of Myanmar for the first time since she was 15 years old.

Pwe told how she moved to Thailand as a teenager to work in a paper mill, and how a KTLA recruitment video on TikTok led her to return home and become involved in the armed rebellion.

Wearing a Guns N' Roses T-shirt and sitting in a hammock, she said the Karen people had shared food and shelter with her, a Bamar, “so we could continue the revolution.” Ta.

“They care about everything about us,” she said.

Pue also described an argument she had with her mother, who tried to throw cold water on the idea of ​​her daughter joining an armed group and fighting the army.

Phu's mother asked if she would be willing to kill a relative of hers who serves in the Myanmar military if she met him in combat.

“I said, 'Yes, if I'm faster than them,'” Pugh said.

“My mother was really angry, but it helped her understand how important this revolution was,” she said.

About a year ago, Pue told her mother she was planning to cut her hair.

“Then I ran away,” she said.

Since joining KTLA, she has stopped talking to her family.

“I can't bear the feeling of missing my mother. Her crying is so heartbreaking that I can't bear it,” a tearful Winnie the Pooh told Al Jazeera.

“When the revolution is over, I will go home,” she added.