Front Burner - Inside the bloody fight for Myanmar’s democracy

Episode Date: March 3, 2021

“Now we have no choice. We have to fight back.” Today we hear from a young pro-democracy activist in Myanmar who is risking her life on the streets of Yangon to fight back against the military coup.

In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization, empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. This is a CBC Podcast. Hi, I'm Jamie Poisson. Gunshots in Myanmar, where demonstrators continue to take to the streets a month after the military staged a brutal coup. The military made its move in the early hours of the morning, detaining Myanmar's democratically elected leader,

Aung San Suu Kyi. The army assaulted people as it carried out the coup, says this man, who describes his country as a bird learning to fly, and now the army has broken its wings. According to the United Nations, at least 18 people were killed and 30 injured just on Sunday when the military fired live ammunition into crowds in several cities across the country. There have also been mass arrests.

But despite the escalation in violent tactics, hundreds of thousands of protesters continue to defy the military and risk their lives to fight for democracy. My guest today is a student protester in Yangon, a major city in Myanmar. We're withholding her name for her safety, so I'll just be calling her at 10. When we connected, she had just arrived home from a long day of dodging security forces and tear gas. Hello? Hi, is this Tant? Yes.

Hi, hi, it's Jamie from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Oh yeah, thank you for being interested in our countries of play. And you're home safe now? Yes, I am. I just got back like two or three hours ago. I'm glad to hear that. I hear that you're out almost every day protesting against the military and their takeover. What's it been like out there? Well, in the very beginning, it wasn't too rough, like in at least in the cities, it was more rough and cruel acts happened in other part of the country. But right now,

it's almost everywhere is the same thing. Like they became like a terrorist and they cracked down, they used real guns. And so many people have been shot to death. So many people have been arrested and nobody knows where they are. So a lot of things have been happening. Right. And I know that the United Nations is saying that at least 18 people were killed just on Sunday. Were you out on Sunday? Can you tell me a little bit about what it was like to be in the crowds? Yes, Sunday was really rough. But I was I was with the protest group. And then we

were hiding because they started shooting us and we sent neighbors hide us in their homes. And they feed us food and like random strangers cause the whole country's against the military and like they feed us like these young kids like eat the food, get some energy, this and this and then we sneak out from the back door and we join the other big groups. And what happened is the place that I was in,

it was so united and even the neighbors were like helping us so much and they throw the blanket for us to use it against the smoke bombs and everything so i wasn't in a very bad situation but i realized when i get back home uh when i look at look through the social media posts and everything and uh so many people have been like dead and like shot and so many people got injured in other part of Yangon, like where I, the city I'm in. And also it was worse in many, many other states in my country. So Sunday was like really bad. And so things have really escalated on the streets in the last week, right? This was the day Myanmar's army set out to impose its will, whatever the cost.

Two terrified women watched as police, commanded by an army officer, advanced on the protesters, calmly shooting directly into the crowd. Can you tell me a little bit more about how things have gotten worse? So I think the reason is we're really like focusing on CDM like the civil disobedience movement and everybody has been supporting it and I think it's effective that the military is kind of afraid of that and we are out there to support and like to show that we are against it like to support the people who are doing CDM and to also like show the military that we cannot accept this coup and we cannot accept this terrorist acts and I don know, they just started cracking down on these peaceful protesters

and they just started doing all sorts of things. And I cannot imagine how they can even do that. Like, it's not a normal human mind. And you and I are talking on Tuesday. And I understand that the military was also using tear gas and rubber bullets today. Can you tell me a little bit more about what was happening today? Today, yes. So what happened is the military right now, like these days, they started cracking down even on a small group and even in the different neighborhoods. Normally

when we do the protest we go on these like public square, big square and we gather there and we do the peaceful protest right. So they didn't even allow that anymore. So people started protesting inside their own neighborhood and people started protesting like in whatever way they can like they gather when they can and they protest in their own neighborhood when they cannot. So today I was in a neighborhood and we had a defense team, a young defense team in front of it. And then we were in the middle and catching the tear gas and throwing them back to them. And sometimes the neighbors, they throw blankets for us so that we can catch the tear gas. And we use the cooler and water. And we're just doing all sorts of things that we can to fight against them

we we don't use guns and we don't know but we also need to protect ourselves so these are kind of the self-defense thing that we have been doing right tan you're saying that you're using blankets to catch the tear gas and then you you throw the tear gas back wow yes with our own money we bought gloves and stuff so that we can catch the tear gas and we can throw that throw them back to them however we can and sometimes we soak the water we soak the blanket in the water and we can just what the tear gas that kind of things and you mentioned a defense team what do you mean by that? So what happened is, before, we weren't really organized, because none of us has been experienced

this. So when they come, we just like ran away. So it seems like, you know, we're out there, but we just keep running away. So we decided to, a lot of us decided to do, have a defense team, meaning that a group of young people stay in front and as long as they are cracking down it's not serious they said people don't move we'll be there and if they shoot we will like we will cover you and then you can run like we will give you the alarm like you know so that's why we can stay longer in the street and we can protest longer otherwise as long as we have a false alarm we just ran away so so tan you're saying that there are people who are putting their themselves between protesters and the military. They're saying we'll we'll die for this, essentially.

Definitely. Yes, definitely. So we are in the middle and we are the one who catch the tear gas and this and that. And those people are the one in front in between like the protester and the military. And they are the one who like, you know, gives the real alarm if we should run or not. Otherwise, we keep running and we can't even protest because we don't know what they're going to do. So now we can stay a little longer in the street. Okay. Tan, listening to you describe this, this defense team that you're talking about, you know, you're out there catching tear gas canisters it sounds really scary are you worried about your own safety well because we know the military too much already like our whole life so we're more worried that we will go back to the dark age the whole system will be like under like we don't want to be under their, how do you call it, management anymore, you know?

And right now, after experiencing this, I notice how many other ethnic groups in different areas of the country have been experiencing. So we don't want that to happen anymore. So we're more worried that they will be in power than losing our life. All right, I'm going to pause the interview for just a second to give some more context here. When Tant says that protesters are more worried about going back to the dark age, she's talking about the total control of Myanmar by the military, a dictatorship. This is the way things were in the country for a really long time. Like I'm talking about from the early 1960s to about 2011. That's when a new government pushed for a return to civilian rule. It was the first

time in 20 years that they'd seen anything approaching free and fair elections. Democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi was elected to parliament after decades of house arrest. This is the country's new parliament, and some politicians are openly telling us that they're still learning. But the military never really let go of power. Even before a vote is cast, the result is ensured. 25% of seats will go to the military. And the military's current commander, the guy who orchestrated the coup on February 1st, well, he's been in power for about a decade and has held major influence over the country, even as Myanmar slowly transitioned to a more democratic system.

It was under his leadership that Myanmar's military has been condemned by the international community and the UN Human Rights Council for war crimes and an alleged genocide against Rohingya Muslims. Two foot soldiers seem to support the accusation. They describe being ordered to destroy village after village, commanded to kill civilians, adults and children, and throw them into mass graves. Dean Mohammed says, they were firing in my area and even called us out from our home

and then slit my father's throat. And Tan's awakening to the treatment of ethnic minorities in Myanmar is where we're going to pick up the conversation. You mentioned that you understand now what different ethnic groups have been experiencing. Can you tell me a little bit more about that? What do you mean by that? So the military and different ethnic groups always have conflict and it's all over the country, like mostly in rural area, like very, very remote area. But normally people like don't really get a lot of

information and people really don't know what it is like and now this happened and a lot of people are starting to speaking out about that and the ethnic groups are telling like this is what we are talking about this is it and then now people become more united i think that's the bright like the silver lining things like the whole country became united against one terrorist group. You also mentioned how you don't want to go back to the dark, the dark ages, the dark times. And can you tell me a little bit more about that? So until I go abroad to study, I didn't notice what I have been like missing, what I have been losing, you know, like, I grew up with two TV channels, and I thought it was normal. And, and the whole system is corrupted.

And the education system is corrected. And when I, when I got scholarship to study abroad, and when I first went out of the country, I just realized how much we couldn't do, like how, how much, how much we could do if we just have chances, if we just have a better education system. There are so many things to develop. And I came back to Burma and this thing happened. So we have so many other issues to resolve. Right.

These two television channels you talk about, they're run by the state, right? Yes, yes, yes. They're fake news now. You have a lot of dreams for your country. Is that what you're trying to say here? Yes, yes, I do. And I was so hopeful, like, even though we didn't have like 100% democracy back then, I was really hopeful, like for the transition. And I was like, maybe we will get one day but I didn't even think that they would do the coup at all. Nobody expects that. And then that happened and we were like, okay, now we have no choice.

We have to fight back. who's protesting alongside you i know you're obviously young you're a student who else is with you mostly young people are out there because uh recently there was a one like generation a little older woman and she has a heart attack just because of the boom songs and she passed away things like that so we um mostly the people out there are younger younger generation uh however even the neighbors they're like at the balconies and they're like clubbing for us and like they said if something happened just come inside their house and they prepare food for us. So almost everyone's just kind of out there, but we're just only there physically.

But they're helping you during the day. You know, people might remember in 1988 when there was a very bloody crackdown against student protesters. Just like you right now, thousands of people died. The army quickly took control of the streets and issued regulations on the radio banning further protests. No one shall go out of doors without permission. At first, the protesters ignored the military's orders and continued demonstrating. Without warning, the army opened fire from a building near the American embassy. Many students just lay on the platform and some on the roads. And are you thinking about that? Are you and your fellow protesters thinking about that? Yes, in the beginning, we were very,

very careful because we have a lot of news that, you know, like in the UN, China and Russia, they keep saying that this is an internet affair this is not crime against humanity that is an internet affair and like you know nobody should interfere this and that so people were so careful because we worried that military will use the same trick that they used back in 1988 because they trying to create like reals and like they trying to release like some higher killers and like saying that this is like a riot and like you know so they have to control the state something like that so we couldn't do that so that's why people have been like telling each

other to be like peaceful and like non-violence peaceful we have to be like you know patient and this and this and this so even until now like we're really proud that everybody is so united and we didn't do anything violent apart from like during the self-defense thing, like picking up things and throwing back at them or like, you know, when they are like too close, we hit back. So right now we think that we are more hopeful than 1988 because we have the information flow and people are like a little bit more cautious like the younger generations are more creative I guess

I know you say that there's an information flow but also the military is shutting down the internet periodically right and is that making it more difficult and more challenging? Yeah, it does. Like I like they do it from 1am to 9am. So it does make it difficult, but we got it during the day. I don't know if they're going to shut down that one as well. But we got it in the day and the younger generation these days, I think they're very flexible. So it's a little bit unpredictable. And like we protest like a water, you know, like we just like, if something blocked here, we move the other way and like we protest like a water you know like we just like if something blocked here we move the other way and like we change the plan and so that's why I'm like a little more like optimistic

about the situation when I'm out there even though it's so dangerous and I know that we could get hurt at any time right right you're protesting like water um your parents are they worried about you oh yeah very so my mom didn't want me to go out at all, but she knew that she couldn't stop me. So she said that she would just stay inside and pray and I just be careful and like come back. And I put my blood and the phone number, emergency numbers and stuff on my hands

and in my phone screen lock as well. So yeah, so I told them that like, don't call me don't contact me if you don't hear any news that's a good news I'm like safe if something happened to me someone will call you with these numbers so because you're saying you write your blood type and emergency numbers on your hand for other people to call your parents in case something happens to you yeah wow Almost everyone is doing that, yeah. Yeah. Tint, what do you hope the international community does here?

hope the international community does here we really want uh them to know that the military is a terrorist group and they are doing all sort of this crime against humanity acts and we want them to boycott their businesses because they're using all the tax and all their business money to buy the military products and like guns and everything to sustain their power and we really want them to like boycott and do the social punishment things and we want UN to act quickly if they can but I rely more on the strength from inside my country. So the thing that the international community can do is you can simply just stand on the right side. Even if you can't help us, we just don't help them. Tan, thank you so much for talking with me today. And please, please stay safe out there and please keep us posted on

what's happening. Thank you so much for interviewing and thank you for praying for us and thank you for being interested in these cases as well. Yes. Thank you. Okay. Well, we're thinking of you. Bye bye. All right, so that was Thanh in Yangon.

And now, before I let you go, let's talk about Aung San Suu Kyi, the controversial and once-beloved pro-democracy icon and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. It's important to note that Suu Kyi has come under harsh criticism for her failure to protect Rohingya Muslims from gross human rights violations under her leadership, and for defending Myanmar by denying accusations of genocide at the UN International Court of Justice. Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy, won a decisive victory in Myanmar in November, just months before the coup, when she and other political leaders were arrested and detained by the army. She now faces criminal charges for using illegally imported walkie-talkie

radios and breaching coronavirus protocols, charges that have garnered much skepticism by the international community. And she was seen in court via video link earlier this week. That's all for today. I'm Jamie Poisson. Thanks so much for listening to FrontBurner. We'll talk to you tomorrow. In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization.

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