The writer is a journalist in Yangon Region who is receiving support from The Kite Tales to write these diaries.
One evening in November, my 21-year-old sister and her closest friends who are still in Yangon decided to take the risk to meet up after more than a year of isolation.
In the violent aftermath of the Myanmar coup in February 2021, the group of young men and women were among the protesters who surged onto the streets to resist the military. One friend was killed, one was arrested, and several others became resistance fighters or were forced into hiding.
Everything about the November meeting showed how their young lives have been mutilated by the generals trying to cling to power at any cost.
The friends could have picked any number of nightclubs and bars in Yangon, which have reopened in recent months. But their motivation to see each other was not like the carefree days before the coup. Then, they played games, drank alcohol and chatted about their crushes or the material things they wanted.
This time, what they needed was a quiet place to talk about their experiences and share their feelings.
They chose a nondescript hotel resort in Bago a couple of hours’ drive away from Myanmar’s main city.
It was a very emotional meeting. The friends took turns to talk about their lives since the coup, sharing their sadness and anxiety and the relief of finally being able to tell each other what had happened to them without the worry of being overheard.
This is Chit Su’s story*.
Friendly and outgoing, Chit Su said that a series of incidents had left her terrified. She used to have a good job working in sales for a bathroom products company. But she told the group her experiences forced her to quit. She had not worked for months.
One evening as she walked down the street on her way home at about 6pm, three men approached her from behind and threatened her. They told her to give them her phone and cash and not to run. It was a busy street, so she ran into a nearby store and called a friend to help her get home.
She started to feel more insecure taking the bus, so one evening she decided to take a taxi, but the driver harassed and threatened her.
After that she arranged to have a lift each evening in a friend’s car. But one night, just before they reached her home, they were stopped by soldiers. This incident, in particular, caused her to stop working altogether.
She remembers that there were four of them.
Two soldiers ordered her friend to open the door and pulled him out of the car. The other two got into the back of the car and sat behind her.
Even with her closest friends, Chit Su could not bear to repeat the words that came out of the soldiers’ mouths. All she was able to say was that they were very mean and very obscene. She was petrified and convinced they would physically assault her.
She kept apologising to them, trying not to provoke them. They asked how much money she had, and she was too frightened to protest, she just gave them everything she had in her purse. Almost 40,000 kyats (roughly $19 and 10% of what she needed to survive every month) were gone in a flash.
When the two soldiers sitting behind her got out of the car, she felt like she was returning from the road to death. Finally, they pushed her friend back into the car after checking his phone and threatening him and they were able to leave.
Chit Su told her friends that she has moved in with her grandmother. She doesn’t come from money so she still needs about 400,000 kyats every month to support herself. She said she was now only looking for jobs where the employer provides organised transport to and from the office.
After all this the thing that bothered her most, she said, was that she did not know who she could tell about the incident, or any organisation she could complain to. Certainly not the military, whose troops have made the streets unsafe for ordinary people.
To be continued..
* We have changed all names to protect people’s identities
Artwork by Songbird who is receiving support from The Kite Tales to produce illustrations.
