My last post was about what it means for young people’s careers to escape across the border to avoid conscription. As I interviewed people still in Myanmar, however, they shared other reasons for staying, one of which struck me particularly deeply: family.
Some have painfully chosen to cut ties with family for mutual protection, and others have stayed as long as they can, living in constant fear of having to abandon their family. “Aung” falls into the second category.
The 34-year-old farmer is already on the Zoom call when I join, sitting under a tree in a picturesque field and chatting with Lili, one of my PYO coworkers who has set up this call. As the others in the Chiang Mai office hear his voice, I see them jump up to crowd Lili’s camera and say hi. I can’t help but to smile and laugh with them at this excited reception and Aung’s contagious smile (even though I still only understand 3 words of Pa-O). When Khun Oo joins to begin the interview, the others reluctantly go back to their work, but Khun Oo and Aung still take a moment to chat sociably.
Aung begins by telling us that he is on the conscription list and will be called up to report for training any day now. As a result, he is living in perpetual uncertainty. He lives in Southern Shan State and explains that in his village, conscription is being implemented by one of the militia groups that is allied with the military: Pa-O National Army (the armed wing of the Pa-O National Organization, known for consistently committing human rights abuses).
Aung tells us that his village is nearly empty of men 18-40 years old; they have all either already fled or been conscripted. He has been notified that he will be assigned to training soon but will only find out day-of. When we ask what he plans to do when he is called up, he replies with a smile: he’ll run. He doesn’t want to fight.
He had planned to go to Thailand after the coup, but he says he didn’t because of his family. It wasn’t possible to travel with so many people, particularly his young children. Most of the other men in his village who have gone to Thailand left without their families, hoping to get a job and accommodation figured out first. With the wave of conscription refugees and others fleeing the war, however, finding work and stability in Thailand has proven to be exceedingly difficult, and many of the families are still in their village.
Aung has seen how difficult this situation is for the families left behind. He explains that in his community, men are the head of house and main providers for their families. So, when a man leaves, not only does it impact his family emotionally, but also their security and social standing. Many feel unsafe and face criticism from other community members.
When Aung thinks of putting his wife and 3 young children in that position, tears come to his normally smiling eyes, and he looks away. He says he doesn’t even want to think about the feeling of leaving his family, and I can feel the pain in his words, even without the translation: life without his family would be a worst-case scenario. And yet, it is looming.
Aung says that these days he’s living day-by-day, focusing on survival and farming. He has an arrangement with a friend to take over the farm and split the income with his family when he finally does have to flee. But he says he hasn’t planned further than that. When I ask about his hope for the future, he says he doesn’t have space to think into the future beyond the next day, let alone a future for his family beyond the conflict.
Aung says he’s just a farmer, living among normal people, but he can’t see who is benefitting from the current situation. The military is losing its little legitimacy by forcing people to join who then run away or refuse orders, but normal people are losing, too – life and friends. “So who is winning?” he asks, eyes still shining.
The name of the interviewee has been changed to preserve confidentiality.
Aung’s bean and corn farm is in the hills of Southern Shan state, pictured here. Aung tells us that there’s lots of farm work to be done this rainy season, and this year the work is extra challenging because so much of the labour force has left.
Photo credit: Yarzaryeni, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Posted By Madeleine Schneider
Posted Jul 8th, 2024
4 Comments
Mary Ellen Cain
July 8, 2024
Aung is very brave for staying with his family as long as he has. I can’t imagine what anxiety he and his family are experiencing as he waits for the call. I hope he is able to escape conscription, that he finds a way to support his family while he is away and that we are able to follow up on his story.
Iain Guest
July 10, 2024
Hi Maddy – you’re really starting to examine the human cost to the war in Burma, and to conscription. These are important posts and I hope you’ll keep them up. All conflicts are polarized and Burma is clearly no exception. I think that’s what I’m reading from your blog. I’m reminded of friends in Nepal who tried to get on with their lives during the Maoist rebellion: anyone who didn’t openly support the government was assumed to be a rebel. The rebels then took note and viewed them as enemies. Similarly in Uganda where our friends from WAW were kidnapped and forced into slavery. Eventually they escaped and returned to their villages, only to be viewed as collaborators. Are you seeing the same in Burma? And I’m interested to hear that the Pao-O militia are behind conscriptions in the Pao-O villages and allied with the regime. So many different aspects to this conflict….keep these good posts coming!
Madeleine Schneider
July 10, 2024
Good question, Iain – as far as I have gathered, there doesn’t appear to be quite as much blame as there seems to have been in Nepal and Uganda. In fact, among the people I’ve spoken with, there actually seems to be a lot of understanding and empathy for regular people just trying to survive. They’ve explained to me that the culture of compliance is deeply engrained, as it comes from both tradition and the education system (the propagandist content and the learning model that doesn’t teach critical thinking) – even Khun Oo said that he was bought into the propaganda and compliance until his mid-20s. That being said, now that the military is pushing conscription, young people are being pressured to choose one side or the other (and the military, being the one forcing conscription is really making more enemies than friends), and as I’ll write about in my next post, people are suspicious of young men who are not fighting now, regardless of which side. Another caveat is that I’ve been working with peacebuilders who do collaborate with resistance militia but are advocating for non-violent means to conflict resolution, so they are likely less critical of people who have not taken up arms. Definitely something I’ll keep investigating and thinking about!
Regarding the Pa-O National Army/Organization – the situation is very interesting and complex, but essentially there are 4 or 5 main Pa-O resistance organizations, each with a militia wing (there are some smaller groups that have split off recently because of differences in opinion regarding the approach to conflict, i.e. violence or negotiation). PNA/O is the only one that is actively collaborating with the military, and the others are generally collaborating with each other and the NUG. So PNA is conscripting in the areas of the Pa-O Administered Area that they have control over on behalf of the military. I’ve been told that the other Pa-O organizations do hope that PNA/O will eventually be willing to change sides and join the resistance, though.
Iain Guest
July 15, 2024
Very interesting! I wonder what it will mean for the war that conscription is forcing Burmese people to choose sides. I’m also interested in your comments on non-violence, Maddy. OK, so your peace-building friends advocate non-violence. This raises the perennial question of whether non-violence is practical or even ethical in the face of a ruthlessly violent regime. Has it created any tension between the rebel fighters and the peace-builders? Also, Burma/Myanmar has a complicated relationship with non-violence. Aung San Suu Kyi won the Nobel Peace Prize and was then vilified internationally for not preventing the genocide of the Rohingyas. I’m not suggesting you take a dive into any of this and hope you’ll stay focused on the personal cost of conscription. But it all helps to shed light on a “hidden” conflict, as you described it in an earlier blog ….