Highlights: Three years after the coup in Burma, the resistance movement wants to believe in victory. The Burmese junta seems more weakened than ever after a vast offensive - at the end of October 2023 - by armed groups. The movement is made up of a multitude of ethnic armed groups and the PDF, the popular defense forces. The question of the political future of the country and a model of governance that could suit more than 140 different ethnic groups remains unresolved, says RFI's John Defterios.

Testimonials

Three years after the coup in Burma, the resistance movement wants to believe in victory

Three years after its coup d'état, the Burmese junta seems more weakened than ever after a vast offensive - at the end of October 2023 - by armed groups who want to believe in a victory. The resistance movement is made up of a multitude of ethnic armed groups and the PDF, the popular defense forces, an armed wing formed in response to the putsch by the national unity government in exile. Testimonies of activists and fighters engaged in the fight against the junta.

Rebel military operations in the Sagaing region, November 23, 2023 (illustrative image). REUTERS - STRINGER

By: RFI Follow

May joined the insurgency just over two years ago. His battalion is deployed in the Sagaing region. Within the unit made up of around sixty young people - average age 25 - May takes care of fundraising: “

I am responsible for finding funding and donors for our battalion. I can’t go to the front line because I have health problems

.”

For these young urbanites living in the middle of the jungle, the daily challenges are immense: “

We are subject to attacks from the Burmese army by water and land routes. We live in fear of airstrikes. One day, our camp, which was open to the sky, suffered intense strikes for about fifteen minutes, we had nowhere to hide. Otherwise, there is a lack of electricity and drinking water and there are a lot of mosquitoes. The roads are also in a very bad state

.”

May's battalion took control of three towns. But after two years of combat, fatigue sets in: “

The days are sometimes very hard, we are tired. But we must hold on. We hope that this year will be the year of freedom, in any case we will do everything for it

.” May's hope is reinforced by the unconditional support of the local population who aspire as much as the insurgent alliance and the PDF to get rid of the military dictatorship and build a federal democracy.

Determination

Among the Karenni rebel fighters, near the Thai border, it is the same determination. Metal debris and rubble between the columns is all that remains of the police station in Mese, a Burmese town about fifty kilometers from the Thai border. Young local fighters from the Karenni Defense Force stormed it and killed around twenty representatives of the Burmese security forces.

Assault rifle on his shoulder, among the debris Aung Naing, twenty-two years old, remembers the operations: “

The soldiers and police were barricaded, there, upstairs, they were shooting at us; they refused to surrender. The exchange of fire lasted for three hours, so we threw two bombs, which we had made ourselves with fuel, and then we entered. The fighting in the rest of the city lasted about a month, then the city fell, the Burmese soldiers left, but we knew we had to continue fighting.

Three years after the coup, better organized rebel forces are gaining ground throughout Burma, especially in the border areas, where ethnic armies have now taken control of rural areas and main towns. The junta has never been so weakened, but the question of the political future of the country and a model of governance that could suit more than 140 different ethnic groups remains unresolved.

Three years after the coup in Burma, the resistance movement wants to believe in victory

Three years after the coup in Burma, the resistance movement wants to believe in victory

Determination

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