Story by Wanna Taemthong

A year ago, the Myanmar military ordered an air strike on a displaced persons camp located near the Thai border. Four young boys who survived that bombing recalled events from that night – the fear in their hearts amidst the darkness, a life of sleeping outside safety shelters, the air strike that night that almost pushed a boy into becoming a sniper, and humanitarian aid during days in which the Thai authorities did not allow them to cross the border for safety.

After Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, Myanmar’s Commander-in-Chief, seized power from the civilian government in a coup d’etat on 1 Feb 2021, the lives of many Myanmar citizens changed forever. Young people attempted to flee their country for reasons related to politics, the unrest, the violence that the military inflicted on the people or the military conscription policy which swept people into becoming part of the army and the coup.

But not everyone has enough assets to start a new life in another country. Internally displaced people (IDP) camps in Myanmar became the place to stay for a large number of people who cannot stay in their homes after the coup came knocking on their doors. Near the Thai border in Mae Hong Son, there is an IDP camp for around 3,000 Karenni people. It was once bombed in an air strike.

Koo Mo So: After the bomb attack, “I wanted to volunteer to become a sniper”

Koo Mo So

Koo Mo So is a Karenni boy who always has a smile on his face every time we see him. He is not very tall. He is thin, but still seems as strong as his friends in the IDP camp. We can tell that they are easily able to carry bags of rice. Koo Mo So told us that he was turning 17 this year, and that he was studying in Grade 9 for the second time, since the war situation in his country means that his studies keep getting disrupted.

It’s been almost 2 years since Koo Mo So came to this IDP camp. He came here with his older brother, before his mother later joined them.

“I mostly cook every day. As for the chores, we all help each other, like building houses, making water containers and yokes for carrying water. When our mother came, I cooked less, since my nieces and younger sister also came to live with us. At first, I didn’t want my mum to come since it was a difficult journey to get here.

“We came here because mum wanted us to continue our education. I don’t have any plans for my life, I just want to live normally. And at first, I barely knew anything about the coup at all. During the COVID-19 pandemic, everything stopped. So when the coup happened, I didn’t feel anything special, since everything had already stopped,” Koo Mo So said.

Before COVID-19 and the Myanmar coup, he attended school normally like the others. After that, although some schools remained opened, his school never reopened. But he did hear news that they started teaching again not long ago.

“I was just another student before the coup,” Koo Mo So said.

After the coup, Koo Mo So had joined a protest against the Myanmar military by marching around town, as well as night protests and motorcycle protest rallies, since he did not agree with the coup which had taken away his and everyone else’s normal lives in Karenni State.

Damages to the hospital building after the bombing

This IDP camp in the forest was not so safe as to be able to live normally. Last year when the Myanmar military government sent planes to drop bombs in the middle of the camp at midnight while everyone was sleeping, there was no warning, and no one knew beforehand that that night the Myanmar military would target them.

“After the air strike, the school closed temporarily. At that time, I heard from a friend that the [Karenni Nationalities Defence Force - KNDF] was accepting volunteers to be snipers. I thought I wanted to join them too. I’d tried firing guns with my uncle once before, but I’m not a professional. I’m not scared of the Myanmar soldiers at all, because I’m not fighting alone. There are many people on our side,” Koo Mo So said.

“On the night of the attack, I was sleeping at a friend’s house inside the camp. When the bomb landed, the earth from where the bomb fell spattered all over our heads. My friend’s aunt was very scared and didn’t know what to do. She and some other people ran to the stream to the west to find shelter, but the 4 of us headed to the east to the bunkers.

“My mental health was affected by the fear I felt that night. Many months after that, I still can’t sleep because the fear remains in my heart. When I hear the sound of motorcycles driving past at night, I would get worried thinking that it was the sound of an aircraft. But now I feel better."

The coup happened for a scary purpose. Koo Mo So said that he was able to learn many life lessons from this distressing situation. Abandoning his home to stay at the IDP camp has partly expanded his knowledge and perspective from when he stayed at home. He learnt to live life even when life was not normal and realised the importance of education.

“This coup caused me to come far in terms of experience and knowledge (the curriculum in the IDP camp is better than the curriculum he studied in Karenni State which was controlled by the Myanmar government). In the future I want to study as much as possible. After that, when it’s time to restore the Karenni State, I want to also have part in this restoration and help in the restoration of Myanmar as well.”

“Honestly, I don’t hate Min Aung Hlaing. In my opinion, someone made him become a cruel dictator. Their army taught him, making him believe, instilling beliefs that he himself is part of an elite class with special rights above others. His parents fostered such thoughts in his head,” Koo Mo So said.

When asked what he would wish for if he could, Koo Mo So said that instead of asking for a good or rich life for himself, he wanted to wish for the freedom of soldiers whose lives were sacrificed in the war for freedom and for a peaceful country. He wished it could come true for them.

“I wish Myanmar to have peace and become a developed country.”

Koo Ma Wi : a lonely life in the camp, dreams of becoming a businessman

Koo Ma Wi

When he lived in Karenni State, gunfights occurred every day. The violent war brought danger to Koo Ma Wi and his family, since the conflict happened near their home.

Koo Ma Wi, 17, told us about the unrest in Karenni State after the coup. He is currently in Grade 10, and the reason he decided to come to this camp was also for educational reasons. Before the coup during COVID-19 he was in Grade 7, but his school closed down due to COVID-19. One year after that, the coup happened. From then on, Koo Ma Wi did not get to attend school again.

“As time passed, I found that my life had no educational opportunities at all, so I decided to come to the IDP camp to receive an education and enjoy safety again. When I first came here, I faced many obstacles,” Koo Ma Wi said.

Out of all the 4 interviewees, Koo Ma Wi is the only person living in the camp by himself. He has lived by himself in the camp for more than 2 years. He had several friends about his age also living in the camp. Some nights Koo Mo So and his other friends would come to sleep with him at his house, and it became normal.

Koo Ma Wi’s mother passed away 2 months before the coup from a chronic illness, making his life more difficult. He had to look after his younger brother and work with his father to make money. He had no opportunity to study. So when his uncle invited him to stay in the IDP camp, it was not difficult for him to make a decision.

“Right now, my dad is still at our home village in Karenni State which is not safe, since the conflict could happen at any time.

“At the camp I have to live alone. Sometimes Dad would send me money, but living alone isn’t easy at all. I have to fight with loneliness. I have to do all the chores, cook rice and look for food day and night, and fix the house alone when it gets damaged,” Koo Ma Wi said.

Here there is no electricity or running water. In his daily life in the camp, the first thing he has to do after waking up is wash his face and wipe his body clean. Then he cooks breakfast and eats before going to school. At midday, he walks back home to eat lunch. Most students here do the same. After coming home from school, he goes to take a shower at the camp’s bathing spot (about a 5 km walk there and back from his home) and wash his laundry. He then cooks dinner and stays with his friends until dark. Most of the time they sing and play guitar. After that they do homework and read, or sometimes just relax, and then go to bed.

On holidays, some days he wakes up late, cooks, eats, does chores, then looks for wood or timber to build a bridge in front of his house and fix his house.

He spent a long period after the coup living alone in the camp with depression.

“Sometimes I feel hopeless when I’m alone. No one has any freedom in these difficult times, and everyone has money problems.”

Koo Ma Wi also took part in protests against the military coup during the early stages when there was no violence against the people. But later when the situation deteriorated and soldiers started to shoot civilians, he never joined any more protests again, since he knew that Myanmar soldiers can make it dangerous for the people at any time. He does not see that the Myanmar army did anything good at all in the country’s political history.

“I became aware that the dictators are not good people. At first, I thought the coup would not last long, but as time passed, I started to understand that it would last for a long time. They have been killing people ever since the events in 1988. I know that they are greedy and want to hold onto power forever. From then on, I decided to oppose them through education and came here to study. Taking up guns against the Myanmar army isn’t the best choice for me,” Koo Ma Wi said.

Last year when the Myanmar military carried out the air strike, he was sleeping in his house in the camp. When the bomb landed, he woke up. He and 3 others headed to the bunkers.

“At that time I wasn’t scared, but felt more shocked. Not long after that the plane circled back to the other side of the camp. We had to hide in the bunkers all night until the sun came up. The air strike happened between midnight and 1 o’clock. Next morning everyone in the camp walked to the first Karenni IDP camp, including me. We set up temporary tents outside the camp near the camp’s Zone 9.”
“In the future I will work hard to become a successful businessman. If I can, I will help the IDP camp and give what they want as much as I can.”

“If I can make a wish, if possible, I wish the soldiers who lost their lives on the battlefield could return to their families again. I wish they could be alive, because their families are still waiting for them,” Koo Ma Wi said. 

Koo Ri Doo : “If someone had to die in place of my family that night, make it me.”

Koo Ri Doo

Koo Ri Doo is taller than his friends and appears calmer than everyone. He is 18 years old and is in Grade 9 for the second time. Due to the political situation, like many other children, he stopped going to school and started working. His family did not have many choices. They had to flee to another town from the Myanmar military manhunts, before ending up in this IDP camp.

“The reason I had to come to this camp was because my family didn’t have a choice. We had only our house where we didn’t have a chance to stay in the village. Living in the village wasn’t safe for our family. We escaped to this IDP camp with no chance to return home even once. When the State Administration Council (SAC) soldiers came to search our house in the village, luckily we were elsewhere. When we heard the news, we quickly fled without going back home again.“The reason the SAC soldiers searched my home was because at that time, my uncle was a leading instructor in the revolutionary army, and SAC soldiers wanted to find him,” Koo Ri Doo said.

He has been in the camp for more than a year. Koo Ri Doo is half Karenni, half Shan. He can speak both Karenni and Shan. He has a younger sister who is intellectually disabled, and she is different from other children.

“Before the coup, I can say that we were living normally. Maybe we weren’t as comfortable as others, but I’ve never expected that my life would end up in an IDP camp like this,” Koo Ri Doo said.

Koo Ri Doo told us that he did not have any education and was just living day by day with no direction nor hope. After the coup, he joined the protests against the Myanmar military in motorcycle rallies and the “22222” strike.

“I once thought about joining the revolutionary army when I felt dejected and hopeless for my own future. Right now, I’ve decided to go to the end with my education, as far as I can. Then I will return to serve Karenni State, my hometown, especially in education. If I have the opportunity to study abroad, I would like to grab that chance like everybody else,” Koo Ri Doo said.

A bomb shelter near the school inside the camp

The days and nights that the Myanmar military sent planes to drop bombs were like nightmares in Koo Ri Doo’s life. The bunkers in the IDP camp weren’t built by other people – each house had to dig out and build their own bunkers.

“When the attacked happened, my house had a bunker, but it was too small for all 6 people in my family. Everything was difficult. That night my little sister didn’t stop crying at all, because she had never experienced anything like this before. That night we decided to let the women hide in the bunkers, while my Dad and I lay down nearby outside. I was very scared. When I was about to get up to grab something, a bomb fell near the church. I immediately lay back down and the ground shook. I thought I might die. If someone had to die in place of my family that night, then make it me,” Koo Ri Doo said.

If he could make a wish, he would wish that his country would return to peace and develop like other nations.

Koo Ne Re: “I didn’t feel anything in particular when the Thai authorities didn’t allow us to enter the refugee camp.”

Koo Ne Re and his guitar - one of the few entertainments in the camp. The four boys often sing together in the evenings.

Koo Ne Re is the youngest out of all our interviewees. He was only 14 years old and was in Grade 10. Koo Ne Re came to this IDP camp since his village could not be lived in anymore and he had no opportunities to study, so he decided to come to this camp.

“Before the coup, I had a more beautiful life. I worked in a farm and spent a peaceful life. But after the coup, I had to flee like the others and faced many difficulties. When I travelled here, I only had a backpack and a few clothes, food for 4 days and some money,” Koo Ne Re said.

After the coup, Koo Ne Re did not really understand what happened. But after a while, he started to understand more after seeing people going out to protest against the coup. They knew how to deal with the army’s coup, the coup which left cruel traces in the past – and the people are doing the right thing.

“I didn’t think about joining the revolutionary army, because when the coup happened, I didn’t understand the political situation. What I saw from the Myanmar military coup was that they were a minority who only knew to hold power that they didn’t deserve and that they oppressed the people,” Koo Ne Re said.

When the air strike happened last year, Koo Ne Re was in Zone 4 of this camp. When the plane dropped the first bomb, he was not yet inside a bunker. Luckily, he did not get hit. Once he was in the bunker, the second bomb was dropped. He felt scared, just like everyone else.

“We fled to the Thai border and asked to set up a temporary camp. At that time the Thai authorities didn’t allow us to enter the refugee camp on the Thai side. I didn’t feel anything in particular, since it’s not our land, and we don’t have any power. After the air raid, we walked for about 3 hours to arrive at a refugee camp near the Thai border,” Koo Ne Re said.

Koo Ne Re’s life plan is to study as far as possible, then return to serve his Karenni hometown. If he could make a wish, he would wish to live in a good country.