It Could Happen Here - Myanmar: Printing the Revolution, Part 1

Episode Date: March 7, 2022

Robert Evans and James Stout start their four part series on the Gen Z Militias of Myanmar. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You should probably keep your lights on for Nocturnal Tales from the Shadowbride. Join me, Danny Trejo, and step into the flames of fright. An anthology podcast of modern-day horror stories inspired by the most terrifying legends and lore of Latin America. Listen to Nocturnal on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, everyone. I'm Robert Evans, and this is Myanmar, Printing the Revolution. It's an It Could Happen Here special miniseries, an in-depth documentary investigation with me and journalist James Stout. Over the next four days, you're going to learn about the Jinzi militias of the Myanmar Civil War, 3D printed weapons, and a bunch of other really fascinating stuff besides.

So, without any further ado, here's James. Ever since a first person built the first fence, took land from everybody and annexed it to themselves property rights and violence have gone hand in hand with property grew the state and with the state came the police today most of us grow up under the control of states and they're so ubiquitous that their violence is often overlooked until a particularly egregious incident occurs. But all states, even the most benign, rest on a monopoly on violence. States are the entities that impose laws on a given area, and if you break those laws, the state can beat you up, lock you up, or shoot you up. When the state loses a monopoly on violence, it ceases to be able to enforce its laws,

charge its taxes, and enforce its will on the people it rules. We've seen this all over the world, from the Democratic Republic of Congo to, briefly, downtown Seattle. Our state in the USA speaks the language of rights and liberties. When we want to appeal to the state, we tend to use that language. Even though our state, as we saw in 2020, is backed by plenty of violence, as much as any other, it goes a long way to camouflage that violence. Some states are a bit more mask-off. They speak to their citizens more or less exclusively through violence, and when citizens need to respond to that state, they respond in the language it uses to speak to them.

That's how a teenager from Yangon, Myanmar, ended up on Reddit in summer of 2021, asking strangers how to use a 3D printer and computer to make a rifle. Myanmar isn't a country that is on the radar for most of the US. If it is at all, it's probably because of State Council and Foreign Minister Aung San Suu Kyi. She managed perhaps the history's fastest pivot from Nobel Peace Prize winner to head of a government accused of genocide. But Suu Kyi is in jail now, and the Rohingya, the Muslim ethnic group that the military attempted to eliminate from the east of the country under her rule, are just one of many

ethnic and political groups that are in open armed conflict with the military, who now hold control of the government of Myanmar. Known locally as the Tatmadaw, the military seized power in early 2021. You might have seen a video of a woman doing an aerobics workout as the vehicles rolled in behind her to seize power. Ever since that day, they've been committing crimes against humanity all over the country. Myanmar has a longer history of dictatorship than democracy. The British East India Company occupied the area that now represents the country in the 19th century. As always, they talked about civilizing

missions and freedoms, but in practice, the occupation was extractive and only benefited the Anglo-Burmese and a few Indian civil servants they brought with them. Often, Buddhist monks led to resistance that manifested itself in hunger strikes and everyday acts of disobedience. Small ways of saying no. In a few instances, it became open and unrest spilled into the streets. The country became a major battleground during the Second World War, with Japan invading and seizing the country, before Allied forces took it back in a fierce campaign in 1944. As many as 150,000 Japanese troops died. Burmese people fought on both sides. Aung San, Aung San Suu Kyi's father, demanded that Britain grant him and his

fellow Burmese people independence if they fought for the Allies. The British refused. Aung San then went first to China and eventually Japan for support, and eventually he fought against the British with his Burma Independence Army. But after two years of occupation, Aung San and his comrades changed sides. Under a broad alliance called the Anti-Fascist Organization, they turned on the Japanese, and they once again took up arms to liberate their country. On the 4th of January 1947, Burma became an independent republic. The new republic's territory combined three British territories and over 100 distinct ethnic groups. For the next 14 years, these groups struggled to find a democratic Burma and an identity for themselves within it. Mostly they failed. The period was characterized by the Chinese Civil War spilling into Burma, ethnic armed insurgencies,

and repeated demands for a federal republic with a weak central government. In 1962, the military, irate at new demands for a federal republic, staged a coup. Burma spent the next 22 years under the military rule of a council, pursuing what they called the Burmese way to socialism. Burma's planned economy left it largely isolated from the rest of the world. At home, the press was censored, and a type of nationalism that combined nominal socialism and Burman ethnic identity became the official state ideology. During this period, Burma became one of the world's poorest countries. Sporadic protests were met with overwhelming force. On the 8th of August 1988,

an uprising began. It started among the students in Yangon, but it took root quickly around the country. The so-called 8888 uprising, because of the date, began with a general strike and huge non-violent protests. These were met with gunfire. Protesters fought back with Molotov cocktails and rocks. The military fired into hospitals, and by September 18th, they'd launched a coup to take the country from a one-party state back to a military dictatorship. It was during these protests that Aung San Suu Kyi, the daughter of independence hero Aung San, emerged as a national figurehead, especially in the West. Amitav Ghosh, the Indian writer, wrote the following about 8888.

Across Burma, people poured out in thousands to join the protests, not just students, but also teachers, monks, children, professionals, and trade unionists of every shade. It was on this day, too, that the junta made its first determined attempt at repression. Soldiers opened fire on the demonstrators, and hundreds of unarmed marchers were killed. The killings continued for a week, but still the demonstrators continued to flood the streets. After the uprising had been suppressed, multi-party elections were later held. While the new National League for Democracy party of Aung San Suu Kyi won the most votes, the hunter refused to cede power. Protests continued off and on for decades, with the 2007 Saffron Revolution,

in which the government violently cracked down on monks, resulting in the most international condemnation. Following the Saffron Revolution, and the government's isolationism hindering aid after extensive cyclone damage in 2008 the military government finally implemented the roadmap to discipline flourishing democracy that had developed in 1993 if you're wondering about the name of the country this officially changed in 1989 as well but like much of the nation's history a grand proclamation from the government didn't mean much on the ground. Both words derive from Buranma,

a name that the majority ethnic group who we're calling Burman here use for themselves. Many opposition groups still use Burma instead of Myanmar. It's another small way of saying no to the military's attempt to control every aspect of their lives. Finally, on the 18th of September, the army took to the streets in a coup led by their chief of staff, General Sormong. The next day, the killings began again. The army later described these people as looters. It was not until 2011 that the military junta finally stepped down and passed on power to the Union Solidarity and Development Party in an election that was widely seen as fraudulent. A year later, Aung San Suu Kyi was released, and by 2015, her National League

for Democracy won an absolute majority. While she was barred from holding the presidential office, she took on the role of state councillor, and Myanmar entered a period of liberalization which, although never the federal democracy promised when the country gained its independence in 1947, allowed for significant freedoms of communication and speech, especially for the Burman majority ethnic group. Not everyone was reconciled to the change. Many of Myanmar's 135 ethnic groups feel marginalized by the state, which tends to be dominated by the Burman ethnicity. Some of these groups have armed insurgent wings, often more than one per ethnic group, as they disagree on politics or religion. These groups have fought various Burmese governments since the 1940s, but many of them

reached a ceasefire with the government as the country passed from military to civilian rule. One group, however, saw a huge uptick in violence. The Rohingya ethnic group have been persecuted by Buddhist nationals since the 1970s, but the campaign against them increased in violence and scale in 2016, when the Tatmadaw began a huge crackdown against Rohingya people in Rakhine state. The persecution began in response to attacks by the Arkan Rohingya Salvation Army on Burmese border outposts, but the campaign that followed had nothing to do with the small insurgent group, and a lot to do with the desire of the Tatmadaw to destroy or drive out all Rohingya people, who they claim are undocumented migrants from Bangladesh and not

citizens of Myanmar. While the world praised Suu Kyi, her government looked the other way as the military carried out a genocide that displaced over a million people and killed tens of thousands. It was in the context of growing international condemnation of the genocide that Myanmar went to the polls in November of 2020. The November 2020 election was only the nation's second since the official end of military rule. Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won a resounding victory. The military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party holds 25% of seats under a constitution that Suu Kyi wanted to change. It didn't take defeat well. The election was neither perfectly free nor fair. The Rohingya have been almost wholly disenfranchised.

The government claims they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and thus unable to vote. are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and thus unable to vote. Areas with ethnic armed organizations which oppose the government often had polls canceled and internet cut off, according to Human Rights Watch. The Carter Center estimates that 1.4 million citizens couldn't vote. The one opposition party that was certainly not shortchanged was the militaries. However, it was the Union Solidarity and Development Party, USDP, which had been calling for election delays due to COVID before polls opened. Once the elections concluded, they immediately began questioning the results. They continued to attempt to undermine the vote for months before they resorted to force on the 1st of February 2021, the day before the newly elected legislators were due to be sworn in.

The world largely ignored the situation, apart from the one viral video where a masked fitness instructor dances in the foreground as APCs roll through a roadblock and into the parliament complex behind her. Aung San Suu Kyi was arrested, charged with breaching COVID-19 restrictions and illegally importing a walkie-talkie, and General Min Aung Hlaing was installed at the head of a military junta. If this sounds a little like a stop-the-steal fantasy, that's because it is eerily similar to one. Myanmar's democracy is not what academics call a consolidated one, which is to say that democracy has never been the only game in town there. But the United States seems to be

rapidly deconsolidating its own democracy. The allegations of election fraud in Myanmar were no more credible than those in Arizona. However, the military's tradition of political engagement there removed many of the barriers in between electoral defeat and the death of a short-lived democracy. Within 24 hours of the coup, the people of Myanmar had fought back. Healthcare workers and civil servants were on strike by February 3rd, and a boycott of junta-owned businesses had begun. Protests began with a handful of people. The memories of massacres of pro-democracy protesters in the 1980s kept many away.

But a younger generation, who had grown up with relative liberty, internet access, and basic freedoms, had not seen blood in the streets like their parents. They had seen activists in Hong Kong, the USA, and Ukraine take on violent state apparatuses, and they'd often seen them win. Fire and Dare Enter. Nocturnum, Tales from the Shadows, presented by iHeart and Sonoro. An anthology of modern-day horror stories inspired by the legends of Latin America. From ghastly encounters with shapeshifters to bone-chilling brushes with supernatural creatures. I know you.

Take a trip and experience the horrors that have haunted Latin America since the beginning of time. Listen to Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows as part of My Cultura podcast network. Available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. By the 6th of February, 20,000 people were in the streets of Yangon, the largest city, and the internet was shut down nationwide. Protests began peacefully, with memeable signs like My ex is bad but the military is worse

and We are protesting peacefully but with a W-A-P capitalized so it said WAP. These signs were designed by a generation of kids who grew up with access to the internet to attract international attention. Despite the ban, they used VPNs to share images of their struggle. One sign read, you've messed with the wrong generation. Now we'll never be allowed to ruin our own lives. The Tatmadaw showed its cards pretty quickly. Police began the suppression with slingshots and clubs, then tear gas and flashbang, and quickly they were moved to rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. By the 9th of February, Maya Thwe Thwe Hine,

a 20-year-old woman, had been shot in the street. KILLING KILLING KILLING KILLING KILLING KILLING KILLING KILLING KILLING KILLING

KILLING KILLING KILLING KILLING Soon, those young protesters had switched signs for shields. By mid-March on Arm Forties Day, 114 civilians were killed in a single day, including 65 in Yangon, who were kettled by police, surrounded, and then shot. Quickly, shield walls were set up, medics identified themselves in the protest movement, and hard hats and goggles were distributed. But this didn't tip the balance

of power in their favor. Suol-in, a former student union leader, was there from the start. In a text message, he told me, I did not miss a single day. As a member of the Kaya State National Strike Committee, I later became more involved in anti-authoritarian protests. In the early protests, you see him in photos walking in the front of a group carrying flags and banners with his student ID card on a lanyard around his neck. But by March, he's wearing a black shirt, goggles, and a hard construction hat. Meanwhile, the National League for Democracy politicians, who had escaped detention, joined other parties and set up a National Unity Government in April. The National Unity Government contains members of the National League for Democracy, but

significantly, a Rohingya activist was appointed an advisor in the Ministry of Human Rights, and the National Unity Government has announced it would, for the first time, accept the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court with respect to all international crimes committed in Myanmar since 2002. This would include the Rohingya genocide. By May, both the National Unity Government and Suwalin had realised that no amount of non-violent protest was going to dislodge a regime that was happy to gun down kids in the street. So on the 5th of May, he left for the jungle. That same day, the National Unity Government announced the formation of the People's Defence Force, or PDF. Within a month, 800 soldiers had defected to these pro-democracy guerrilla units. Many brought their guns with them.

But Tawar didn't join the PDF. Instead, he joined one of Myanmar's many ethnic armed organizations, groups opposed to a central state and its domination by the Burman ethnicity. To understand these groups, you need to understand that Myanmar is composed of dozens, not hundreds of ethnic groups, but that the Burman, who make up about two-thirds of the population, have always controlled the state and used it as a tool in furthering their interest. Some of these groups, like the Karen National Liberation Army and the Kachin Independence Army, have been fighting for decades since the country emerged from British colonial rule at the end of World War II. All of these groups draw on a combination of ethnic and political grievances. Many of them administer semi-autonomous territories, like the Karen State.

Welcome, I'm Danny Trejo. Won't you join me at the fire and dare enter? Nocturnum, Tales from the Shadows, presented by i Heart and Sonora. An anthology of modern day horror stories inspired by the legends of Latin America. From ghastly encounters with shapeshifters to bone-chilling brushes with supernatural creatures. I know you. with supernatural creatures. I know you. Take a trip and experience the horrors that have haunted Latin America

since the beginning of time. Listen to Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows as part of My Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. came together to form the Nationwide Ceasefire Coordinating Team, NCCT, and signed an 11-point common position of ethnic resistance organizations on national ceasefire, or the LISA agreement. Most of them seemed to agree that they would accept a federal system, rather than complete autonomy. In 2015, a ceasefire was signed, but conflict between ethnic armed organizations and between EAOs and the government continued.

Since the coup began, EAO membership has skyrocketed, and in October, the National Unity Government announced alliances with several groups under a central chain of command. Some political organizations who played a part in the 1988 uprising, like the All Burma Students Democratic Front, have been revived as armed groups. The ABSDF recently attacked Tatmadaw ships using an RPG. Attacks on military bases have also stepped up. PDF units have ambushed and killed policemen and raided police and military outposts. Each time they do, they steal valuable weapons and ammunition. The Tatmadaw has responded with shellings and airstrikes against residential areas, executions, mass physical

retribution, and the murdering of civilians and aid workers and burning of their bodies. As a result of all this, ethnic armed organizations have joined forces with anti-authoritarian Burman people under the auspices of the People's Defense Forces, which are under the command of the exiled National Unity Government. of the exiled National Unity Government. We have never experienced such kind of brutalities from the military as well as a strong resistance from the people. They try to make sure the whole country submit to them, but we still refuse to allow them to be our rulers.

This defiance has led to the formation of the People's Defense Forces, or PDF, a coalition of thousands of resistance fighters who are carrying out surprise attacks on hunter checkpoints, bombing army convoys, and supporting ethnic armies in their fight against the regime. Twelve months ago, these men and women were students and office workers protesting the coup. Today, they're training to overthrow the military. Being a soldier is a tough choice, but the young people, they are ready to defend the communities.

They have to, of course, sacrifice their own daily life, ordinary life. Since March of 2020, the influx of new recruits has changed these groups. Generation Z militias like the Karini Jinzi Liberation Army have sprung up, founded by kids who were holding memeable signs at protests just a few months earlier. They care less about ethnic independence and more about beating the junta. Many Burman kids join these groups. These organizations of young fighters received training from the experienced guerrillas hiding in the jungle, but they tended to adopt a less top-down military structure and armed themselves by scavenging whatever weapons they could find,

often.22 caliber rifles better suited to shooting squirrels than soldiers. It was these kids, who grew up online and knew that there was nothing you couldn't learn about on Reddit, who tipped the balance of force away from the state. Unlike the ethnic armed organizations and other more experienced guerrillas in Myanmar, these kids have little military experience. Their organizations have few rules and regulations. They're made up entirely of young people. As a result, there are certain things that they're less proficient at, but they're much better at things like grasping the use of new technologies, which has led to Myanmar being the first country in the world where 3D printed weapons have taken part in a revolution against the government.

We're going to hear more about that and many other things as this series continues. It Could Happen Here is a production of Cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from Cool Zone Media, visit our website, coolzonemedia.com, or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can find sources for It Could Happen Here updated monthly at CoolZoneMedia.com slash sources. Thanks for listening. You should probably keep your lights on for Nocturnal Tales from the Shadow. Join me, Danny Trejo, and step into the flames of riot.

Join me, Danny Trejo, and step into the flames of right. An anthology podcast of modern day horror stories inspired by the most terrifying legends and lore of Latin America. Listen to Nocturnal on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.