Myanmar: Fighting the might of the junta

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary

4.3 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 21 April 2022

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Myanmar is now in a state of civil war. What started in February 2021 as a mass protest movement against the military coup is now a nationwide armed uprising. The junta is under attack across the country from a network of civilian militias called the People’s Defence Forces who say they’re fighting to create a democratic Myanmar. The BBC gained rare access to the jungle training camps where young protests are being turned into soldiers. We follow a single mother and a student who have sacrificed everything to join the fight. They're up against a well-trained military that’s willing to use brutal tactics to stay in power. As the death toll mounts and the world looks away, can they restore democracy?

Reporter, Rebecca Henschke. Produced with Kelvin Brown, Ko Ko Aung and Banyar Kong Janoi.

(Photo: Twenty-year-old Myo left home to join the resistance. Credit: Chit Aye/BBC)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Rebecca Henshki, the BBC's Asia Editor in London.
0:04.6	For months now, I've been working with the team of Burmese journalists
0:08.6	as their country descends into civil war.
0:12.1	Since seizing power, the Myanmar military has closed its borders, tried to block the internet
0:18.0	and they've been jailing journalists. But our team managed to get this material out to us
0:24.1	so we can tell this story. It's a story that the Myanmar military doesn't want you to hear.
0:35.6	Mahura had spent all night thinking about it.
0:40.8	When Dawn broke, she packed one bag and called her children into her room.
0:44.9	Since I'm going to join the revolution, after that I can't see you again.
0:55.9	If we win, I will come home victorious. Or it may be that I never come home. Can you let me go?
1:05.0	I don't know, I'm not going to leave you.
1:11.4	Her sons were five and eight years old, stood there.
1:15.7	Mahura, their single mother who ran the village corner store was leaving.
1:20.9	She was joining the armed uprising against the Myanmar military who seized power in a coup last year.
1:27.2	If I don't come back, don't feel sorry for me. Be proud that your mother is a brave and noble woman
1:38.6	who made a choice that no other could.
1:50.2	My sons told me, mom, you go with a peaceful mind. We will be good boys.
1:56.6	We will listen to Grandpa and Grandma. So I dived into the revolution with both feet.
2:08.8	That was in July 2021.
2:11.4	Mahura is now one of the leaders of this all-female fighting unit.
2:28.2	That's not a real name, but her children's safety were hiding her identity.
2:33.8	Mahura's militia unit is made up of teenagers, housewives and business women.
	...

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