Myanmar: Printing the Revolution, Part 1

Robert Evans and James Stout start their four part series on the Gen Z Militias of Myanmar.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey everyone, I'm Robert Evans and this is Myanmar printing
the Revolutions and it could happen here. Special mini series,
an in depth documentary investigation with me and journalist James Stout.
Over the next four days, you're going to learn about
the gen Z militias of the Mean Mar Civil War,
three D printed weapons, and a bunch of other really

(00:25):
fascinating stuff. Besides, So, without any further ado, here's James.
Ever since the 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,

(00:45):
most of us grew up under the control of states,
and they're so ubiquitous that their violence is often overlooked
until a particularly agreed toious incident occurs. But all states,
even the most benign, rest on a monopoly on violence.
Stay it to the entity. Is it imposed laws on
a given area, and if you break those laws, the
state can beat you up, lock you up, or shoot

(01:06):
you up. When the state loses the monopoly on violence,
it ceases to be able to enforce its laws, charge
its taxes, and enforce its will on the people at 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 a language of rights and liberties. When

(01:26):
we want to appeal to the state, we tend to
use that language. Even though our state, as we saw
in it's 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

(01:48):
to the language it uses to speak to them. That's
how a teenager from Yangon, Myanmar ended up on Reddit
in summer of one asking strangers how to use a
three D printer and computer to make a rifle. Me
and Ma isn't a country that is on the radar
for most of the US. If it is a tool,
it's probably because the State Council and Foreign Minister on
San Succhi. She managed perhaps the history's fastest pivot from

(02:13):
Nobel Peace Price winner to head of a government accused
of genocide. But Suki is in jail now and the
Rahana the most of the methnic 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.
They're an open armed conflict with the military, who now
hold control of the government of Myanmar, known luckily as

(02:34):
a tapmad or. The military sees power in early one
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. Me and Ma
has a longer history of dictatorship than democracy. The British
East India Company occupied the area that now represents the

(02:56):
country in the nineteenth century. As always they talked about
civil rising, 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. But
this month led to resistance that manifested itself in hunger
strikes and everyday acts of disobedience, small ways of saying no.

(03:18):
In a few instances, it became open and unrest spilled
into the streets. The country became a major battle ground
during the Second World War, with Japan evading and seizing
the country before Allied forces took it back. In a
fierce campaign in nineteen as many as a hundred and
fifty thousand Japanese troops died. Burmese people fought on both sides.
A son, An San Suki's father, demanded that Britain grant

(03:42):
him and his fellow Burmese people independence if they fought
for the Allies. The British refused. Ansan then went first
to China and eventually Japan for support, and eventually he
fought against the British with his Burmer Independence Army. But
after two years of occupation, a stand and his comrades
changed sides. Under broad alliance called the Anti Fascist Organization,

(04:02):
they turned on the Japanese and they once again took
up arms to liberate their country. On the fourth of Januar,
Burma became an independent republic. The new republic's territory combined
three British territories and over a hundred distinct ethnic groups.
For the next fourteen years, these groups struggled to find

(04:22):
a democratic Burma and an identity for themselves within it.
Mostly they failed. The period was characterized by the Chinese
Civil War, spilling it to Burma. Ethnic insurgencies and repeated
demands for a federal republic with a weak central government
in the military. A rate at new demands for a

(04:43):
federal republic stage to coup. Burma spent the next twenty
two 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.
Home the press was answered. A type of nationalism that
combined nominal socialism and Burman ethnic identity became the official

(05:05):
state ideology. During this period, Burma became one of the
world's poorest countries. Sporadic protests were met with overwhelming force,
and the eighths of august An Uprising began. It started
among his students in Yangon, but it took real quickly
around the country. The so called eight Uprising because of

(05:26):
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 eighteen they launched a coup to take
the country from a one party state back to a
military dictatorship. It was throing these protests on San Suki,

(05:49):
the daughter of Independence. Here on Son emerged as a
national figurehead, especially in the west. Amatov g the Indian writer,
wrote the following about eight eight eight across Burma, people
poured out in thousands to join the protests, not just
students but also teaches, monks, children, professionals, and trade unionists

(06:10):
of every shape. It was on this day too, that
the Hunter made its first determined attempt at repression. Soldiers
opened fire on the demonstrators and hundreds of unarmed marches
were killed. The killings continued for a week, but still
the demonstrators continued to flood the streets. After the uprising
had been suppressed. Multiparty elections were later held, while the

(06:33):
new National League for Democracy party of Ansanski won the
most votes, the Hunter refused to seed power. Protests continued
off and on for decades, with the two thousand seven
Saffron Revolution, which the government violently cracked down on monks,
resulting in the most international condemnation. Following the Saffron Revolution,
the government's isolationism hindering aid after extensive cyclone damage. In

(06:56):
two thousand and eight, the military government finally implemented the
roadmap to discipline flourishing democracy that it developed in. If
you're wondering about the name of the country, it's officially
changed in 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 derived from Barana, a name that

(07:17):
the majority ethnic group who we're calling Burman here used
for themselves. Many opposition groups still use Burma instead of Myanma.
It's another small way of saying no to the military's
attempt to control every aspect of their lives. Finally, on
the eighth of September, the army took to the streets
and the coup, led by their chief of Staff, General Sormon.

(07:43):
The next day the killings began again. Yeah. The army
later described these people as looters. It was not until

(08:06):
two thousand eleven 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 on San su Chi was released, and
by two thousand fifteen 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 counselor,

(08:30):
and Myanmar entered a period of liberalization, which, although never
the federal democracy promised when the country gained its independence
in ninety seven, 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 a hundred and
thirty five ethnic groups feel marginalized by the state, which

(08:51):
tends to be dominated by the Burman ethnicity. Some of
these groups have armed insurgeent wings, often more than one
per ethnic group, as they disagree on politics or but
the These groups have fought various Burmese governments since the
nineteen forties, 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

(09:13):
Rohinga ethnic group have been persecuted by Buddhist nationals since
the nineteen seventies, but the campaign against them increased in
violence and scale in two thousand sixteen, when the Totma
Dau began a huge crackdown against Rohinga people in Rakin State.
The persecution began in response to attacks by the Arkan
Rohinga Salvation Army on Burmese border outposts, but the campaign

(09:34):
that followed had nothing to do with the small insurgent
group and a lot to do with the desire of
the Totmadaw to destroy or drive out all Rohinga people,
who they claim are undocumented migrants from Bangladesh and not
citizens of Myanmar. While the world praised Suki, her government
looked the other way as the military carried out a
genocide that displaced over a million people and killed tens

(09:55):
of thousands. It was in the context of growing international
condemnation of the An Aside that Myanmar went to the
polls in November. The November election was only the nation's
second since the official end of military rule on San
Suchi's National League for Democracy won a resounding victory. The
military backed Union, Solidarity and Development Party holds twenty five

(10:17):
percent of seats under a constitution that Suchi wanted to change.
It didn't take defeat well. The election was neither perfectly
free nor fair. The Ruhinga have been almost wholly disenfranchised.
The government claims they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and
thus unable to vote. Areas with ethnic armed organizations which
opposed the government often had poles canceled and internet cut off.

(10:39):
According to Human Rights Watch, The Carter Center estimates that
one point four million citizens couldn't vote. The one opposition
party that was certainly not short changed was the militaries. However,
it was the Union Solidarity and Development Party u s
DP which had been calling for election delays due to
COVID before polls opened. Once the elections can who did

(11:00):
they immediately began questioning the results. They continued to attempt
to undermine the vote for months before they resorted to
force on the first of February, 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 a PCs roll through a roadblock and into the

(11:22):
Parliament complex behind her. On Sang Suchi was arrested, charged
with breaching COVID nineteen restrictions and illegally importing a walkie talkie,
and General min On Lang was installed at the head
of a military junta. If this sounds a little like
a stop the Steel fantasy, that's because it is eerily
similar to one. Myanmar's democracy is not what academics call

(11:43):
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 and meanmarb 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.

(12:06):
Within twenty four hours of the coup, the people of
Myanmar had fought back. Healthcare workers and civil servants were
on strike by February third, 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
nineteen eighties kept many away, but a younger generation who
had grown up with relative liberty, internet access, and basic freedoms,

(12:29):
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 had often
seen them win. By the six of February, twenty thousand

(12:52):
people in the streets of Yangon, the largest city, and
the Internet was shut down nationwide. Protests began peacefully with
memorable signs like my eggs is bad, but the military
is worse, and we are protesting peacefully, but with the
W a p capitalized so it said whack. These signs
were designed by generation of kids who grew up with
access to the Internet to attract international attention. Despite the ban,

(13:17):
they used vpn s to shore im due to their struggle.
One sign read you've messed with the wrong generation. Now
will never be allowed to ruin our own lives. The
tap the door showed its cards pretty quickly. Police began
a suppression with sling shots and clubs, then tear gas
and flash brang and quickly they moved to rifles and
rocket papel grenades. By the ninth of February, my way way,

(13:43):
a twenty year old woman have been shot in the street. Soon,

(14:17):
those young protesters have switched signs for shields. By the
mid march, on m forty, this day, a hundred and
fourteen civilians were killed in a single day, including sixty
five 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

(14:41):
in their favor. So all In, a former student union leader,
was there from the start. In the text message, he
told me I did not miss a single day as
a member of the KaiA 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

(15:01):
front of the group carrying flags and banners with his
student I D 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 attention joined other parties and set
up a National Unity Government in April. The National Unity

(15:21):
Government contained members of the National League for Democracy, but
significantly or Hanger activists was appointed and advised with 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 two thousand and two. This

(15:42):
would include the Ring genocide. By May, both the National
Unity Government and Swollen had realized that no amount of
non violent protests was going through this large regime that
was happy to gun down kids in the street. So
on the fifth of May he left for the jungle.
That same day, the National Unity Government announced the formation
of the People's Defense Force or PDF. Within a month,

(16:05):
eight hundred soldiers had affected to these pro democracy guerrilla units.
Many put their guns with them. That's what didn't join
the PDF. Instead, he joined one of Me and Mar'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 Me and Mar is composed

(16:25):
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
Korean 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 Two. All

(16:46):
of these groups, drawing a combination of ethnic and political grievances,
Many of them administer semi autonomous territories like the Karren State.
In two thousand thirteen, thirteen ethnic Armed Organizations or e

(17:08):
a o s came together to form the Nationwide Ceasefire
Coordinating Team in c CT and signed an eleven 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 two thousand fifteen, a ceasefire was signed, but conflict

(17:29):
between ethnic armed organizations and between e a o's and
the government continued. Since the coup began, EO 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 nineteen eighty eight uprising,
like the All Burma Students Democratic Front, have been revived

(17:52):
as armed groups. The A B S d F recently
attacked Tautmadagh ships using an RPG attacks on military basis
of also those 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 top
MEDAU has responded with shellings and air strikes against residential areas, executions,

(18:14):
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 Berman people under the auspices of the People's Defense Forces,
which are under the command of the exiled National Unity Government.

(18:34):
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.

(19:00):
This defiance has led to the formation of the People's
Defense Forces or PDF, a coalition of thousands of resistance
fighters were 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

(19:21):
students and office workers protesting the coup. Today they're training
to overthrow the military Bennesota is the tough choice, but
the young people um they are ready to defend the community.
They have to, of course, sacrifice their own daily life,
ordinary life. Since March of the influx of new recruits

(19:44):
has changed these groups. Generation Z militias like the Karinni
gen Z Liberation Army have sprung up, founded by kids
who were holding memable signs at protests just a few
months earlier. They care less about ethnic independence and more
about beating the junta. Many Burman kids joined these groups.
These organizations of young fighters received training from the experienced

(20:06):
guerillas 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 twenty two 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

(20:27):
ethnic armed organizations and other more experienced guerrillas in my Anmar,
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 my

(20:48):
Anmar being the first country in the world where three
D 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. Okay, It Could
Happen here as a production of cool Zone Media. For
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(21:09):
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Thanks for listening.