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– Tänk om jag skulle kvista över till Myanmar och träffa min tidigare reseledare X i Mandalay, tänkte jag. Jag kallar honom X eftersom all kritik mot den styrande militärjuntan är bokstavligt livsfarlig. Då befann jag mig i Bangladesh, i Chittagong Hill Tracts. Det var ju bara 20 km till gränsen!

Visste förstås att det inte var så enkelt. Landgränsen har aldrig varit öppen sedan engelsmännen lämnade och det går inga flyg från Bangladesh till grannen Myanmar. Man måste flyga via Bangkok. Ändå kunde jag inte släppa tanken och X verkade överlycklig över ett möjligt besök. Och i oktober kunde jag ringa honom på What´s App. Han berättade att han inte talat med en utlänning på fem år. Ingen turist vågar sig längre till Myanmar. Förutom kineser, som kommer i stora grupper, tydligt synliga i identiska glada hattar.

Alltså, trots att jag begrep vad jag gjorde, så bokade jag resan ToR Stockholm – Mandalay, via Istanbul, Dhaka, Chittagong, tillbaka till Dhaka, vidare till Bangkok och med Myanmar Airways till Mandalay. Hemresan blev lite enklare med direktflyg från Bangkok till Stockholm. När jag väl fått en idé i huvudet, så vill den inte besegras av förnuftet. Självbedrägeri är ordet.

Tre timmar med bil nedför bergen till flygplatsen i Chittagong. Fem timmars väntan på natten i Dhaka, sex timmars väntan i Bangkok. Dötrött sneglade jag avundsjukt på andra gamlingar som fick åka rullstol. På flygplatsen i Mandalay mötte en strålande X och jag piggnade till.

X hade en bil framkörd och jag lämpades av på mitt bokade hotell 79 Living Hotel. Jo, så hette hotellet och det passade mig utmärkt. Två sängar att välja på, varmt vatten i kranen, ett internet, om än extremt långsamt. Dessutom fungerade elen ofta. I kylskåpet stod en stor flaska, helt svart, mycket stark öl. Somnade i närmaste sängen.

Hade inga planer eller ambitioner vad jag skulle göra under fyra dagar i Mandalay, utöver att träffa X och en nyfikenhet på de olika inbördeskrigen i landet. 

Om det senare har jag här en lite slarvigt redigerad text-intervju och några filmade intervjuer. Här berättar X om hur han ser på situationen.

– Where do we start? Yes, everything is recorded.

And it’s been three years now. In my opinion, I think everything is coming together, what we’re trying. Several ethnical groups, movements, armies are fighting the military.  

– Who are they? 

The main groups are; Rakhine army which is in in the very west, bordering Bangladesh. They are also known as Arakan Army. This is from where the Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh when the army counter attacked killing many civilians and burning their villages. Another group is the KIA, Katchen insurgent army in the Northeast. 

A third one is Wa, also known as TNLA. They recently took the city of Lazio.

– But the majority population, those are the Barman (the biggest ethnic group living on the plains in central Myanmar). 

As soon as the revolution started, they were many young people who left for the jungle. We call them generation Z. They’re trying to get military training from those insurgent armies. 

– Is this a new uprising? A new movement?

Yeah, we could see that. But since one year they are fighting. Not only for themselves, also for the whole country. This was started in in November 2023.

– From where do they get the arms? 

In the beginning they don’t have. No. Only device they had was the very basic old gun. Later they got weapons from deserting soldiers and took from the army. Later they learnt to make bombs, drones and short distance rockets.

– How is it financed? They need money, the technology, they must buy technology. 

We the older generation Barmans are paying. We support them. Me and my friends are all supporting! I understand that the young generation, the Young Army, they called themselves PDF, People Defence Force. 

– When we walked the streets of Mandalay this morning, we saw there were there were a lot of military personnel in the streets and some streets were closed by barbed wire. In 2019, before Covid, Mandalay got close to a million foreign tourists. During five days here, I have only seen two. What is happening here in Mandalay?

The fight is not only in the rural area or along the border or with ethnic armies. There is also fighting in the towns. In the big cities, even in Mandalay. And then? PDF, the young army attacked one of the main bases of military several times during the night or early in the morning. The PDF armies are coming to attack and trying to occupy the city Mandalay.

– I can see a smile on your face when you say it. And I understand you, you looking forward to such developments. Are you yourself active in some way in this moment, you are not generation Z. 

We try to do as much as we can. To support, you know, that’s money and in other ways. I mean. We try not to support the military coffers. 

– You don’t pay tax?

In the beginning, no. But now you know they’re also trying to control. So, I pay some of them like electricity bill or something like that. In order to avoid the problem with them. Listen, we still try to boycott, you know, not attending the school, not buying products coming from the government sector. We only drink imported beer despite it is more expensive and not so good taste as the beer made by a company owned by one of the generals. I have not renewed my motorcycle licence nor my guiding licence. OK, a kind of civil resistance. All my friends do similar things.

– You told me earlier that the military government is enforcing new regulations. All the time there are new rules. I have noticed myself that I can’t get through on Facebook and that What`s App was closed.  

Yes, just a few weeks ago or something like that. Actually, they tried to block those kind of apps even at the beginning. Now they could do with the help of technology from China.

Everything is getting more expensive. People are facing more difficulties with their daily life. And their incomes still the same. Inflation is around 30% or more. Cuts of electricity are frequent. You can see in the streets yourself that there are generators outside shops, restaurants, hotels. 

In Myanmar we mostly rely on hydropower. A a few months ago, we had a serious flood and so many dams and hydro plants were destroyed. Because of the boycott it is difficult to get spare parts. Only foreign companies had the expertise, but most of them have left the country due to the boycott and lack of security. 

Crime has increased. Theft is commonplace and many houses are now covered by barbed wire. People can kill for a motorcycle. My wife’s motorcycle was stolen.

Jewellery shops are locked and only open for serious looking customers. These are the only places where tourists can change money. Still these shops are also robbed by military supported groups. 

– Myself I changed $500 and became a multi-millionaire, which is quite interesting, but a kind of burden to carry around. I read about a bomb attack on the Chinese consulate in Mandalay. What was that about? 

Oh, they accused, the young army PDF, but actually this was just a provocation, to adjust the political power between military and China. There are two big mines owned and operated by Chinese people. Both now in conflict zones. China now wants to send Chinese military personnel to protect the installations. Something that is resented by the Burmese military.

– We haven’t talked about the Rohingyas. That’s what we in in Sweden and in Europe hear from Myanmar. We know about and the plight of those people. And we also saw some films being taken of burning villages. What is the situation right now?

There was today a breaking news. ICC International Crime Court (ICC) sent a warrant for arrest of the top general Min Aung Hlaing. Is he called general no 1 like in the previous time? Yes he is. There will be a lot of change if he cannot visit other countries. Moreover, it shows him as a criminal against humanity. This genocide was committed in 2017. What really caught the headlines was that the judge signing the warrant is a Bangladeshi national. That was what the criticism was about in the government press.

– But what is the situation today? 

This is in Rakhine State near the Bangladesh border. Previously this state was called Arakan. The Arkanese army is strong and is now fighting the government troops. Bangladesh has now sealed the border and people are now trying to flee by sea to Malaysia and Indonesia, which is very dangerous. Today the Arakan army is controlling the border to Bangladesh.

– You also mentioned that schools are closed. Why are schools closed? At the beginning, because of the conflicts, because of the revolution. But why now?

Later the military tried to reopen schools again. But most of the people refuse. This is one way of civilian resistance that we do in all possible ways. Now we have a kind of two governments; the military and the new government called National Unity Government. And they try to open schools online. Some children are trying to attend those. But most of the people could not because it’s a bit dangerous and Internet line is bad. This is illegal for the military. In villages they open schools in secrecy under the trees where the the planes cannot drop their bombs, but most children do not get any schooling. The military is mostly using the Air Force.

– Yeah, that’s something we have not talked about. What are the evil the military is doing?

They are bombing villages with houses made of bamboo and thatched roofs. They’re bombing everywhere, even though they there is no fighting in that area. They target innocent poor people and civic installations. I don’t know exactly, but you know they’re using very strong bombs which is supposed to put houses on fire. 

– You told me earlier that you had to leave your house. Can you tell me something more about why you did this? 

Yeah, that was three years ago at the beginning of the revolution. We don’t know exactly what’s the situation going to be. Then suddenly in my area the fighting broke out. Many people from other towns came to my area to fight against the military here. The military has serious weapons so the freedom fighters had little chance. With my own eyes I saw people being killed. Still I thought it was not that serious for me to leave home  or move my family but a few days later there was machine gun shooting during night. Then I realised what a machine gun is. Most of our houses are made of bamboo, some wooden. At the same night there was no electricity, and my children were scared, and we couldn’t sleep the whole night. Then I decided in the next morning to move to a different part of the town. Think we are safer here, yeah.

Many soldiers give up and surrender to the PDF. The military government is now running out of soldiers. 10 months agothere was a new regulation. Every man of 18 up to each of 45years of age have to serve in the military. This is mandatory. 

– Who doesn’t want to be in the military? Could you avoid? Is it possible to avoid doing military military service? 

We could avoid it if we could afford to pay something. A bribe or like a tax? Who takes the money? We don’t know. If you have a lot of money, it is expensive. A lot of money, but at least $100 or more. Hundreds and hundreds of dollars. It depends on the situation and depends on the man asking a bribe.