While the world if focused on wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, another deadly conflict is raging much closer to home. Since Myanmar’s military violently seized power nearly four years ago, sixty thousand people have been killed and three million driven from their homes – in the so-called ‘forgotten war’. Opposition to the Junta’s rule and the fight for a return to democracy is still strong.
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00:00The long journey in to a country isolated by a forgotten war.
00:09So we're just crossing the border now from Thailand into Myanmar, you can see the road
00:14is pretty rough, it's pretty muddy and all the rain from the wet season has just made
00:19it even worse.
00:22One of the few ways in is with an invite from one of the rebel armies that control the borderlands.
00:26Today we're guests of the Kothule Army, one of the country's newest and most controversial.
00:32Its leader is this man, General Nadar Bo Mya.
00:35He created this army after he was sacked by Myanmar's oldest rebel group, the KNU, about
00:40three years ago, when troops under his command were accused of massacring 25 unarmed prisoners.
00:47It's an accusation he doesn't deny.
00:49I didn't give the order, but I look at the situation, I think they're not wrong because
00:58it's happened during the fighting.
00:59Do you accept that this was a war crime?
01:01This is not a war crime because it's happened in a war zone.
01:04An investigation into exactly what happened will have to wait.
01:08For now, General Nadar's forces are preparing to fight against Myanmar's military, itself
01:14accused of horrific war crimes, including torture, rape and airstrikes on schools and
01:19hospitals.
01:20While the Myanmar military gets its weapons from Russia and China, the rebels use homemade
01:25RPGs from parts ordered on the black market.
01:32Even some of the drones are homemade, but they can still pack a punch.
01:36This one can carry two 60mm mortar shells.
01:4222-year-old Jennifer has just joined the drone team after leaving her job as a kindergarten
01:47teacher in Yangon to be part of the resistance.
01:50Do you ever worry about being here, you know, so close to the front line in this war?
01:56Yeah, I've been worried about that one, but I believe that God will protect his children.
02:05People call it the forgotten war.
02:06Do you feel like the rest of the world has forgotten Myanmar?
02:10Yeah, sometimes I feel like that, but I think we have to fight back ourselves for our country.
02:22Like so many of these rebel military bases, this one is right next to a village.
02:27But here, the children don't dream of being astronauts or firefighters.
02:31The reason I want to be a soldier is because we don't have freedom in my country.
02:37So I want to be a soldier.
02:39I want to stay peaceful, but I also see that my people are suffering.
02:44So civil war is nothing new here in Myanmar, but what's different this time is just how
02:48many people from the Burma ethnic majority have left the cities and joined with rebel
02:54armies like these, which have been battling the military for decades now.
02:58And together, against the odds, they're winning.
03:02From the bustling city of Yangon to an army base deep in the jungle, women too have taken
03:07up arms.
03:08I will keep fighting with the people until the revolution ends.
03:14This young couple, also from Yangon, met in the jungles of Karen State after fleeing the
03:19city separately following the coup.
03:22I was very heartbroken because many of my friends were killed.
03:26At the start of this year, among so much death, they welcomed new life.
03:33At first, I didn't want to have this child because we live in the jungle, in the middle
03:37of the war.
03:38But when I came to think about it, I was happy to give birth to him because he is a baby
03:42of the revolution.
03:43Maybe when he grows up, there will be peace in Myanmar, or even before we die, we want
03:48to see peace in Myanmar.
03:49The wet season rain brings a welcome pause to the fighting, but when the skies reopen,
03:54the constant threat of airstrikes will return.