Linn, 28, is from Myanmar’s Shan State but lives and works in Yangon. This is her resistance diary.
7th March, 2021
“They are here. Turn off all the lights,” my parents shouted as they frantically rushed inside.
“Close the door and windows right now.”
It was 21:40. What had been a pleasant evening was on the verge of transforming into a night of terror.
I went outside to take a look and immediately panic flared. Every single apartment in my street had gone completely dark. With my phone in my hand, I squatted down and looked out onto the street to see three military trucks filled with armed soldiers slowly entering. Still, I had no clue why the whole ward had fallen silent and there was nobody at their windows. The darkness, the lack of living souls and a howling wind gave me an uneasy feeling. It did not take long to discover what was happening.
At 21:58 they fired a barrage of gunfire in the next street. I was too frightened to lift my head.
Colleagues were non-stop reporting gunfire near their houses in our group chat as well. Stay away from the windows, one said, keep the lights out, lay down and stay silent. My parents switched off all the lights, lay down on their bed and muttered Buddhist mantras. For about two hours the sound of gunfire came from the north, the south, the east, the west - literally in every direction. My mother found me on the computer when she got up to get a cup of water.
“These soldiers will shoot you in the head with no mercy,” she told me furiously.
“Shut the door, turn off your laptop and go to bed now.”
Earlier today, Generation Z protesters cheered and shouted “Happy New Year!” to the sound of gunfire at a protest in Kyauk Myaung. They wanted to show that they were not scared of the troops or their guns.
Looking out at the city, hushed in the darkness, at 00:23 I think all the unarmed generations X, Y and Z know the army is about to take their atrocities to another level.
In my hometown when there was shooting, I used to count the frequency of gunfire. Sometimes there were 10 shots, sometimes 100. Tonight I just sat here wondering how we got here. What did we do to deserve such a horrendous situation in our life? I remembered a scene from The Pianist, a 2002 biographical World War Two film. The Nazi troops picked a house and shot and killed the Jewish family inside at random. Were these Burmese troops picking families to shoot? Who were they shooting? The hairs on the back of my neck stood up just at the thought of it.
In just a month Yangon, the largest city in Myanmar and the business hub, has experienced a bitter taste of dictatorship. The military has advanced its brutality step by step – mild to severe. But, along with the escalating violence and political uncertainty, I think resistance is also evolving. Every day there is a new strategy in Yangon to take on the troops and their horrific crackdown and techniques. I have been very moved to see Generation Z’s unity, creativity, intelligence and its strength. But you cannot underestimate the military, because they never play fair and like to hit below the belt.
I want to figure out what led Myanmar to jump down the rabbit hole.
Tonight though, I will try to sleep with the sound of gunfire.
Artwork courtesy of Art for Freedom (Myanmar) https://www.threefingers.org/
