Aung Myo Htet had always dreamed of being a soldier, and attained the rank of captain. But when he joined forces in Myanmar, he thought he would defend his country, not fight – and lose – fought against his own countrymen,
In June, he was sent to Kaya State to subdue frontline resistance fighters and armed demonstrators who opposed the generals seizing power. a February coup, Three of his fellow soldiers were killed, 32-year-old Aung Myo Htet said.
“I am deeply saddened to see the casualties on our side,” he said. “We were fighting and making sacrifices not for the country but for the general.”
On 7 October, he left his base and joined the country’s Civil Disobedience Movement, or CDM, which aimed to restore democracy and bring down Senior General Min Aung Huling, the man behind the coup. At least 2,000 other soldiers and police officers have done the same, as part of a wider campaign to undermine the Tatmadaw, Myanmar’s most notorious organization.
The defectors form a small percentage of the Southeast Asian nation’s military, which is estimated to number between 280,000 and 350,000. But they appear to have struck a nerve and contributed to a growing crisis of morale among soldiers. Army is struggling for recruitment. It has called back all retirees, threatening to withhold pension if they do not return. The wives of soldiers say that in violation of military law, they are being ordered to provide security to the bases.
For the first time in its 67-year history, the Myanmar Defense Services Academy, the country’s counterpart to West Point, was not able to fill seats for this year’s new category.
“We have never seen defection at this level,” said Mo Thujar, co-coordinator of the Myanmar Studies Program at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore. “What we’ve been seeing since February is this steady trickle of people leaving, and publicly expressing their support for the CDM. It’s unprecedented.”
Min Aung Huling still has the loyalty of his top officers, and too few defectors to topple the Tatmadaw. But those who are leaving are increasingly embracing resistance. Myanmar’s four armed ethnic groups, which have fought the Tatmadaw since the country became independent from Britain in 1948, have provided food and shelter and an opportunity to reunite forces.
“His seasoned military experience has been invaluable to our armed resistance,” said Ning Htu Aung, the Defense Secretary of the National Unity Government, a group of deposed leaders who have declared themselves the legitimate government of Myanmar and who are fighting a growing number of defectors. is watching. “We all have a common goal now.”
Many defectors have promoted their accounts on social media, encouraging other soldiers to follow them. Most of those who have gone are of lower ranking, but some have been officers.
Several defectors are now working with a group of tech workers in a stealth online campaign to get more soldiers to break through the ranks. Activists have created more than a dozen fakes, using stock images of military men and attractive women as profile photos. Facebook Pages to befriend soldiers.
The accounts are used to send direct messages urging them not to hurt innocent people. Another group used Facebook to urge wives to persuade their husbands to leave the military and stop supporting the public.
“There is significance in the propaganda war that is going on,” said Richard Horsey, a senior Myanmar adviser to the International Crisis Group. “I think they make the Resistance feel upbeat and confident.”
Describing their disgust at the instructions of their superiors to shoot civilians, the soldiers who have left say they felt compelled to do so after the coup. On 6 November, the head of a UN body probing war crimes in Myanmar said military attacks on civilians were “crimes against humanity”.
“When I was ordered to shoot, I called the people and told them to flee,” said Het Myat, a captain stationed in Bhamo, a town in northern Myanmar that has been the site of intense fighting between ethnic armed rebels Is. Army. “People survived, but I couldn’t live in such an inhumane place.”
Still, defections can be as dangerous as any battlefield. The People’s Soldiers, a group founded by a former captain who was once Min Aung Huling’s speechwriter, has tried to help.
One night in August, the 29-year-old sergeant, Kaung Het Aung, saw a fellow soldier arguing with a major, who had defected in the march, at a Zoom session organized by People’s Soldiers, and speaking from a hidden location. As he lay down in his barracks and secretly watched the video, Kaung Het Aung wondered how much the Major had to sacrifice to join the anti-coup movement.
He is later contacted by the People’s Soldiers, who tell him they will help him defect, which is the beginning of a harrowing journey. He left his base on 9 May and was involved in a motorcycle accident. When he asked for help, he was thrown into a military prison, she said. On 6 September, he escaped from prison and went into the woods on foot.
The sergeant, who made ammunition, then took a bus to a “free zone”, a term the Resistance uses to refer to ethnic border areas in Myanmar. “I was so happy to be free,” he said. “Now I don’t have to fire bullets to kill people.”
Although the New York Times could not independently confirm the soldier’s account, the risks of defection are clear. It carries a prison sentence of three years, and family members often face retaliation. Travel can be dangerous, involving bases in several cities before security is reached in border areas.
Being flawed also means sacrificing a potentially lucrative future. Officers who are able to rise through the ranks typically benefit from the Tatamdaw’s vast business holdings, which comprise two of the country’s most powerful conglomerates.
“Most people in the army are brainwashed and can’t see the truth,” said captain Lin Het Aung, who defected in March. “Some people who see the truth do not want to leave their position.”
One argument that defectors use to persuade others to leave centers on the poor behavior of ordinary soldiers. A Corporal Zwe Man said he wanted to join the army in 2016 after seeing people garlanding soldiers marching in the southern city of Bago.
A year later, he graduated from the Military Academy and became a sniper. He said he only made $105 a month and the food was bad. “I joined the army because I wanted to be a soldier who defends the country and is loved by the people,” he said. “But when I joined, I learned it was a place to torture lower-order soldiers.”
In May, Zwe Man stumbled upon the People’s Soldiers Facebook page and began reading the comments:
“The army is killing its own people.”
“The army is the biggest thief.”
“The army is trying to rule the country for itself.”
In July, a. during the height of COVID-19 The outbreak, Zwe Man said, caused the military not to isolate those who had been infected with the virus, resulting in deaths in the barracks. He has also been the victim of the violence he has seen since the coup: people are being arrested and homes are being burnt down.
He said his girlfriend told him the army was killing civilians and encouraged him to join the CDM. “I decided that what I really needed to do was stand up for what’s right,” he said. “And don’t be on the wrong side of people.” On 17 September, Zwe Man asked his army supervisor for permission to leave the base.
He said that his request has been accepted. And he never returned.
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