The author is a Chin journalist who is receiving support from The Kite Tales to write these diaries.

A sudden scream startled me and I looked up to see that a little girl playing nearby had burst into loud, wailing sobs. 

I was very concerned so I asked her mother what happened. 

“She’s crying because she saw soldiers on TV,” she said, explaining how the conflict that had caused their family to flee their home had left the four-year-old deeply distressed.  

The woman, her husband and daughter were from Matupi in southern Chin State. Located 3,560 feet above sea level, the town used to be very peaceful until the military coup in Myanmar in February 2021. Since then, fighting between Mutupi resistance forces, known as CDF, and Myanmar’s military has forced residents of the town and surrounding villages to flee their homes and take refuge wherever they can, whether it’s with relatives or in refugee camps across the border in India’s Mizoram state. 

The woman told me that after the coup, life in Matupi quickly became fraught with aggression from Myanmar soldiers. They would stop people and interrogate them, forcing people to kneel on the street, regardless if they were young or old, and then often arresting them. 

She said these troops were based on a hill next to a pagoda (Editor - It is common, particularly in areas of Myanmar where other religions are prominent, for the country's Buddhist soldiers to build glittering golden temples to loom over the local population). The army in Matupi decided the existing model was not big enough and launched construction of a new pagoda called Suu Taung Pyae Zedi, “prayer fulfilled pagoda”. 

While this was being built, she said the army got jittery, perhaps fearful of being attacked by the young fighters of the CDF. 

“So they would fire at nearby villages with heavy weapons day and night. Security forces were also crawling all over the city,” the woman told me. 

This was the beginning of her daughter’s anxieties.

“She learnt to be afraid of loud noises,” the woman told me sadly.

"Matupi used to be a quiet and peaceful city, but the sounds of heavy weapons and gunshots became very common. We would hear them continuously every night, and from every house with children, you could hear the sounds of them crying. Since then, whenever there is a sudden loud noise whether it’s a car horn or just vehicle noise, she’ll come crying to me.”

But one particular incident left the girl traumatised. 

"It is not wrong to say a thorn pierced my daughter’s mind that day,” her mother said.

“I was shopping at the morning market as usual. At an intersection, two military vehicles stopped and soldiers got out of the car. People walking on the road were interrogated. They also stopped motorcycles and asked them to open their trunks. Those they deemed suspicious were told to kneel on the ground. In the Laung Van neighbourhood, soldiers ordered pedestrians to take off their shirts and kneel down.

"Then suddenly, there were gunshots. I don't know from where but I think they came from a soldier. People who were already terrified took flight as soon as they heard the sound of gunshots. 

"I grabbed my daughter's hand and ran. But she tripped and fell on her head. There’s a scar on her forehead from that fall. She was startled and burst into tears. She couldn't stop crying. Since then, my daughter starts to cry whenever she sees soldiers. In her mind, she had that accident because of them. Fear entered her psyche and I don’t know when it will ever go away.” 

I felt really sad to hear this story. 

Perhaps the little girl’s parents have become used to this physical reaction to shock and they will hold their daughter and try to comfort her whenever she cries after hearing loud noises. 

But what is more worrying is the risk that trauma will stay with her until she reaches adulthood. 

I thought to myself what could be done to help these young children who have seen such violence and suffered pain and upheaval in their young lives. 

But how can parents provide comfort when almost all the families with young children in this area are displaced by war?

“The wellbeing, future and survival of a generation of Myanmar’s children is threatened by escalating conflict, insecurity, displacement and poverty,” according to the children’s agency UNICEF.  

It said the COVID-19 pandemic, school closures, economic collapse and surging conflict mean that the “psychological wellbeing and future prospects of millions of children are being harmed, in some cases permanently.”

In Chin state, surveys by local organisations, which cannot be independently verified, suggest at least 14 children have been killed and nine have been seriously injured since the coup.

One thing is for sure - as long as we are not free from the military dictatorship, both children and adults in Myanmar will continue to cry every day from the mental scars they have accumulated. 

Resources on children’s mental health in Myanmar from UNICEF: https://www.unicef.org/myanmar/stories/how-recognize-signs-distress-children 

Artwork by Songbird who is receiving support from The Kite Tales to produce illustrations.