Precis

Thinzar Shunlei Yi is in hiding. Like many who've campaigned openly against the Myanmar military, the 29-year-old TV presenter is on the run, a warrant out for her arrest.

Since the military seized power in a coup six months ago, hundreds of people have been killed and many more arrested.

But Shunlei Yi is determined to tell the world what's happening in Myanmar now.

"What happened in the bright daylight, in the big city, I felt they are showing their true colours, they can't hide it anymore."

Thinzar Shunlei Yi is one of many young people resisting military rule.

Some are protesting peacefully, joining nationwide boycotts and strikes which have shut down schools and hospitals and brought businesses to a standstill.

Others are taking up arms, training with long-established ethnic armed forces on the country's borders.

They're returning to the towns and cities to ambush and assassinate the military and its informers.

"Definitely, we're moving into a phase where civil war is very, very possible," say Manny Maung from Human Rights Watch.

In a powerful and timely program, Matt Davis reports on a country in full-blown crisis.

He spent months tracking down and filming with the military's opponents in Myanmar. He found them in hiding in the jungle, training for war on the borders or living undercover in the cities.

With the internet routinely shut down, getting the interviews out of the country has been difficult. Foreign Correspondent managed to smuggle them out, using trusted sources on the ground.

Despite the risks of speaking out, these people are desperate to be heard, afraid the world's attention is drifting away from Myanmar.

Foreign Correspondent speaks with:

The Foreign Minister of the National Unity Government, Zin Mar Aung who spent nine years in solitary confinement under a previous military government. Now on the wanted list again, Zin Mar Aung is a key member of the newly formed government-in-exile. "It's the last battle for us and for our country, whether we let the military win or democracy win."

A 29-year-old former captain in the military, who defected when the military began killing civilians, and is now in hiding, in fear for his life. "Our soldiers cannot distinguish between the truth and brainwashed information. That's how they perpetuate so much hate and violence towards civilians."

A Gen-Z protestor who's taking up arms against the military, joining the People's Defence Force. They're starting a campaign of assassinations. "We are not just targeting anybody...Are they in the military? Or involved with the military? If we confirm they are, we send them a written warning. If they don't heed our warning, only then do we destroy them."

Episode teaser

00:00

MATT DAVIS, Reporter: A fragile democracy shattered,  a military general determined to hold on to power.

00:04

SWE WIN: He turned the country’s armed forces into a terrorist organisation. No principle at all, no regard for human life, no regard for justice.

00:10

MATT DAVIS, Reporter: Six months after the coup that shocked the world, Myanmar is in turmoil.

00:18

MANNY MAUNG:  Definitely we’re moving into a phase where civil war is very, very possible.

00:24

MATT DAVIS, Reporter: Hundreds have been killed and thousands arrested, but the people of Myanmar are not giving up.

00:29

Music

00:36

MATT DAVIS, Reporter: A new political force is emerging, fighting for a true democracy.

00:39

THINZAR SHUNLEI YI:  We had a failed political system, When the coup happened, it gave us a space to reshape our narrative, to reshape our future.

00:44

Music

00:55

MAN:  "You shoot one of us and we all feel the bullet."

00:58

Music

01:02

ZIN MAR AUNG: This battle is the last battle for us and for the country.

01:05

Music

01:10

Melbourne GVs. Title:
#WhatsHappeningInMyanmar

01:18

MATT DAVIS, Reporter: Our story starts thousands of kilometres away, in the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia. 

01:33

Matt on tram to meet Swe Win

I'm on my way to meet one of Myanmar's most prominent journalists, a man determined to make sure the world knows what's happening in Myanmar.

01:38

Matt walks with Swe Win, at cafe

SWE WIN: My soul is left in my home country even though my body is here. 

01:49

MATT DAVIS, Reporter: A former political prisoner, Swe Win spent three years in solitary confinement for protesting against the military. Today he is the editor in chief of Myanmar Now; his team of 40 journalists across Myanmar are in hiding, but they continue reporting.

01:57

SWE WIN: At least 10 to 20 million people are reading our website in the aftermath of the coup. Normally, our traffic is about one to two million visitors. 

02:16

MATT DAVIS, Reporter: Myanmar Now's coverage is also catching the eye of those behind the coup.

02:27

SWE WIN: The military generals have some sort of personal grudge against me, so they cannot touch me now. As long as I'm outside the country, I'm in a better position to manage the team.

02:32

MATT DAVIS, Reporter: So  you're  the generals'  favourite  journalist?  

SWE WIN: Maybe. But I don't have any sort of ill will towards them.

02:47

We just want to see the country going in the right direction.  

02:54

Swe Win at computer

 MATT DAVIS, Reporter:  Since the coup more than 80 journalists have been arrested, some of them tortured. 

03:00

SWE WIN: I am very concerned about the safety of our journalists. Very, very much concerned.

03:10

MATT DAVIS, Reporter: Journalism in Myanmar has always been a high risk occupation –  two years ago  it almost cost Swe Win his life.

03:16

SWE WIN:  I was on a holiday to a beach. When I was coming out from a guesthouse, somebody shot at me, shot at the car. 

03:25

Swe Win/Photos of bullet wound

The bullet came actually to my neck, but fortunately it went into the keyhole area of the car door, and then the bullet got redirected and hit my leg.

03:34

Myanmar Now articles on computer

MATT DAVIS, Reporter: Swe Win and his team had published a series of articles exposing the vast financial interests of the military commander in chief Min Aung Hlaing and his family. He believes the order to kill came from the top.

03:53

Swe Win at computer

"Was that attack ever investigated? "

SWE WIN: Never ever.  How can I file a police complaint when I suspect that the police were trying to kill me? The soldiers were trying to kill me.

04:08

Daughter enters room

MATT DAVIS, Reporter: His wife and daughter were in the car with him.

04:21

SWE WIN: Yeah well, sometimes when a car brakes, you know, or when she hear a very loud noise

04:25

Swe Win at computer watching military fire with daughter

she mistook it for a gunshot, actually. I don't want to introduce her to the brutalities, but I want her to be aware of all these events, even though she's young. She will grow up with some big memory of what was going on when she was five or six. I think it's important.

04:34

Myanmar. Elections

MATT DAVIS, Reporter: From his new home in Melbourne, Swe Win watched last November’s elections with growing concern. The military backed party was facing a landslide loss against the popular National League for Democracy.

05:08

Myanmar Now online article

Swe Win and his team published an article stating a coup was imminent.

05:23

Myanmar. Woman exercising video. Military in background

MANNY MAUNG:  On Feb the 1st  when everyone was expected to be

05:30

Manny Maung. Super:
Manny Maung
Human Rights Watch

in parliament and didn’t turn up, this is how we knew that the military were taking over. 

05:35

Myanmar. Woman exercising video. Military in background

It was all caught on camera by, allegedly,

05:41

Manny Maung

just your everyday exercise teacher doing her routine,

05:50

Myanmar. Woman exercising video. Military in background

and it was aired and spread out all over the internet as well as on television, making a very clear statement about the fact that the military were taking back control

05:54

Manny Maung

and they were doing it in a way that would instigate fear among the populous.

06:10

Myanmar. Woman exercising video. Military in background

MIN AUNG HLAING: "Currently, Myanmar is striving for political stability. 

06:15

Min Aung Hlaing briefing

Due to the dishonesty of the NLD (National League for Democracy) government, our current government has taken steps to restore integrity to democracy."

06:29

Swe Win watches briefing on computer

SWE WIN: The coup leader Min Aung Hlaing said

06:41

Swe Win

he launched a coup to promote democracy. We did a coup to promote democracy!

06:45

Min Aung Hlaing cavalcade, military parade

We saved the country!

MANNY MAUNG:  As a Burmese person who spent many years living there, I was shocked, but also I was scared.

06:52

Manny Maung

So many of us remember in our lifetimes what it was like to live under military dictatorship and no one wants to go back to that.

07:03

Military presence on street, Aung San Suu Kyi

MATT DAVIS, Reporter: Democratically elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her inner circle were detained.

07:13

Newspapers at kiosk

SWE WIN: Even though we foresaw the size of the coup, I was so shocked. 

07:21

Swe Win

I was struck with a strange sorrow. Not anger, actually. Sorrow. For the plight of this country.

07:27

Aerial. Protests

07:38

Protestor flash mobs dance

Music

07:46

Protests

MATT DAVIS, Reporter: The coup unleashed mass protests across the country. Millions standing united against a common enemy – the military – and its commander in chief Min Aung Hlaing. Led by Generation Z, the protesters demanded the civilian government be reinstated.

08:11

MANNY MAUNG: The previous ten years have been really reformist.

08:31

Manny Maung

People have been able to have so many more freedoms and access to information and thoughts; they can think how they want, they can feet how they want. No one is telling them how to act or how to be.

08:35

Young women at protests

HTWE HTWE THEIN: When you look at these protestors, they are young. A lot of the are also females, and the grew up from my generation hearing these bad stories from my generation.

08:46

Htwe Htwe Thein. Super:
Dr. Htwe Htwe Thein
Curtin University

They have had a taste of democracy and they don’t want to lose it. We are fighting for these young Burmese, their future.

09:00

Young people at protests

SWE WIN: They are the kind of generation who grew up with iPads on their laps.   This kind of generation, I think

09-10

Swe Win

the military might view as troublesome to their control.

09:18

Young people at protests

Music

09:23

Video: Thinzar Shunlei Yi TV show

THINZAR SHUNLEI YI: "I feel like it's very important for everybody to freely think and freely criticise and freely express themselves in different means."

09:36

MATT DAVIS, Reporter: Before the coup, Thinzar Shunlei Yi presented a popular youth TV show. She spoke at international summits alongside superstars.

09:47

Geldof introduction at conference

BOB GELDOF: "She will succeed because she is just one of those people who doesn’t know what it is to fail. Ladies and gentlemen, Thinzar Shunlei Yi."

MATT DAVIS, Reporter: A prominent political activist,

09:59

Thinzar Shunlei Yi at protests

she soon joined the large crowds calling for the military to stand down.

10:11

Thinzar Shunlei Yi addresses protest

THINZAR SHUNLEI YI: "We want our Government back and you are responsible to do so."

10:16

Crowds of protestors

MATT DAVIS, Reporter: As the days went on, bolder demands for unity and true democracy – one without military influence – became the goal.

10:21

Thinzar Shunlei Yi video interview

Thinzar Shunlei Yi was forced into hiding.

THINZAR SHUNLEI YI:  Many young people were basically dreaming, more than just to restore the civilian government or just to release the civilian leaders.

10:31

Protests

They were demanding for a bigger future. Like to abolish the 2008 constitution.

10:43

News reports. Aftermath of Cyclone Nargis. Super: 2008

10:51

MATT DAVIS, Reporter: Thirteen years ago I was living in Myanmar, reporting in the aftermath of cyclone Nargis. It was in this chaos that a much-anticipated constitutional referendum was held. The generals promised it would be a key step

10:57

2008 constitution document

in a ‘roadmap to democracy’. The constitution, or the green book, as it became known, enshrined into law widespread power and control for the military. It was democracy on their terms.

11:14

Thinzar Shunlei Yi video interview

THINZAR SHUNLEI YI:  The 2008 constitution was always the main root cause of the problems in the country. Because whenever we try to advocate to advance our freedom, freedom of expression, or rights to information, then 2008 constitution - they control what should be there. It gave us a sense of false hope that we were going towards a democratic transition.

11:3

Elections

When the coup happened it gave us a space to reshape our narrative, to reshape our future. 

11:55

Military parade

MATT DAVIS, Reporter: With protests escalating, the military began turning its weapons on its own.

12:05

Military fire on civilians

12:12

Photo of Mya Thwate Thwate Khaing on posters

On February 19, the first protestor died.

MANNY MAUNG: Mya Thwate  Thwate  Khaing  was shot  in  the  head. She  had  her  back

12:17

Police spray protestors with water cannon

 turned  to  the  police  forces  that  were  spraying  water  cannons  

12:25

Manny Maung. Super:
Manny Maung
Human Rights Watch

and  tear  gas  and  firing,  initially,  what  everyone  thought  were  rubber  bullets. 

12:31

Police fire at protestors and medics

But  then  it  very  quickly  became  clear  that  they  were  also  mixing  that  with  live rounds. The medical people cannot provide services because doctors and nurses who are trying to provide emergency medical care are also being shot at and beaten.

THINZAR SHUNLEI YI:  This is the most brutal

12:37

Thinzar Shunlei Yi video interview

military ever we could imagine.

12:59

Candlelight vigil for those killed

Even they were not in front of us, we just got killed

13:03

Thinzar Shunlei Yi video interview

by head shots because they use snipers in the tall buildings,

13:09

Phone footage. Injured man

to create fear, especially to shrink our civil space.

13:13

Protestors sing

MATT DAVIS, Reporter: The songs, artwork and memes of the Gen Z protestors fell on deaf ears.   

13:25

And sporadic internet blackouts hampered communications.

13:33

Animation music clip

Music

13:36

CCTV footage

MATT DAVIS, Reporter: More than 900 people, including children, have been killed, both on the streets and in their homes. Thousands have been arrested and many more are on the run. Despite a warrant out for her arrest Thinzar Shunlei Yi continues to speak out.

THINZAR SHUNLEI YI: We try our best to avoid detection from the military, online and offline.

14:05

Thinzar Shunlei Yi video interview

They see people like us, like freedom finders, talking about democracy and human rights, speaking truth to power. They find us threatening because we are with principles.

14:32

Protestor vox pops

PROTESTOR 1: "I wasn’t really interested in politics before."

14:49

PROTESTOR 2: "But I know right from wrong."

14:52

PROTESTOR 3: "As we were just about to see better days ahead they took it away from us."

14:54

PROTESTOR 4: "It’s completely unacceptable."

14:58

PROTESTOR 5: "That’s why I'm risking my life out here protesting."

15:00

PROTESTOR 6: "We need democracy for future generations."

15:04

PROTESTOR 7: "We’re all brothers and sisters. You shoot one of us, we all feel the bullet."

15:07

PROTESTOR 8: "Living under this rule is the same as being dead inside. So it doesn’t matter. We’re in the end game now. Might as well keep on fighting until the end."

15:12

Military presence on streets

Music

15:22

Animation music clip

15:31

Military beat man

MATT DAVIS, Reporter: Among the soldiers themselves, there are those who disapprove of the military’s brutality.

15:48

Photos. Lin Htet Aung

29-year-old former captain Lin Htet Aung left the military shortly after the killing began. He says around 800 soldiers have defected since the coup.

16:01

Video interview Lin Htet Aung

LIN HTET AUNG:  If I were caught right now, it would be the death penalty. No way around it. I have sacrificed my whole life, given up my lifestyle. My life is broken.

16:15

Photos. Lin Htet Aung

Our soldiers cannot distinguish the truth and brainwashed information  That’s how they perpetuate so much hate and violence towards civilians. 

16:31

Video interview Lin Htet Aung

If the soldiers give up their weapons and stand with civilians, the coup will fail. We are the pillars that support these dictators.

16:45

Military camp

CHRIS SIDOTI: Soldiers have to live in military camps and their families have to live in the military camps. So when the soldiers go outside their families stay behind.

16:56

Chris Sidoti. Super:
Chris Sidoti
UN Fact Finding Mission (2017-2019)

And so, they're basically hostages, held by the military leadership to guarantee that the soldiers follow orders.

17:09

MATT DAVIS, Reporter: As the military digs in a new political force is emerging.

17:18

NUG graphic

MANNY MAUNG: The NUG, or the National Unity Government, have been dubbed the shadow government, but they would call themselves the legitimate government of Myanmar. They're made up of a group of National League for Democracy MPs, and self-appointed MPs who were previously key leaders from civil society and the rights groups who were at the fore.

17:24

Manny Maung

Their role now is to challenge the military.

17:51

Matt conducts video interview with Zin Mar Aung

17:55

MATT DAVIS, Reporter: Daw Zin Mar Aung, thank you very much for talking to Foreign Correspondent. Can I ask, where are you tonight, in our meeting?

17:58

ZIN MAR AUNG: Somewhere in Myanmar.

MATT DAVIS, Reporter: Somewhere in Myanmar.

18:06

Foreign Minister Zin Mar Aung is a former political prisoner. She knows firsthand the brutality of the military. This is her first television interview.

18:11

MATT DAVIS, Reporter: How long did you spend in solitary confinement?

18:23

ZIN MAR AUNG:  Nine years in solitary. Totally, nine years in solitary confinement.

MATT DAVIS, Reporter: For protesting against the military?

ZIN MAR AUNG: Yes. So that's why I don't want the new generation to suffer like what we were.

18:26

Military meeting

MATT DAVIS, Reporter: She says it was the commander in chief’s personal ambition that triggered the coup.

18:44

Zin Mar Aung interview

ZIN MAR AUNG: Because he wanted to be a president. It's very clear, because of his personal and political interest, his own interests. Now, the whole country is now being destroyed.

18:51

Military meeting

MATT DAVIS, Reporter: The NUG has abolished the 2008 constitution and is drafting a new charter.

19:04

Zin Mar Aung interview

I just want to show you here, I have a copy here. I can’t read it ….

ZIN MAR AUNG:  You can see that a coup d'état itself is not in line with the constitution, right?

MATT DAVIS, Reporter: Sure.

19:11

ZIN MAR AUNG: So to abolish the 2008 constitution is our political goal. I think the military coup is a challenge, but at the same time it's an opportunity to restart political setting again.

19:25

Map. Myanmar

MATT DAVIS, Reporter: The National Unity Government says it’s the answer to healing this divided country of 54 million people. They’re pledging equal rights for all the country’s minority groups, including the much-persecuted Rohingya.

19:38

Zin Mar Aung interview

Why did the NUG choose recognise the Rohingya?

19:55

ZIN MAR AUNG: Because it is the right thing to do.

19:59

Rohingya people GVs

It is really vital role in order to bring different ethnic background to the same page, because Myanmar never had that kind of diverse cabinet in the previous government.

20:02

It's not just only the political change, it's the change of thinking and social revolution, not just a political revolution.

20:18

Zin Mar Aung interview

This battle is the last battle for us and for the country, whether we let military win or the democracy win.

20:28

Military in truck

MATT DAVIS, Reporter: But can the people of Myanmar defeat the most powerful force in the country? It’s a question that lawyer Chris Sidoti has long wrestled with. He’s spent 25 years trying to improve human rights in Myanmar. 

CHRIS SIDOTI:  This is a military that has been

20:37

Chris Sidoti

in a constant state of war against its own people for 70 years now, since Myanmar independence. It’s been able to do this because of its economic wealth. And we need to use every means possible to put pressure on the military to get back in the barracks, and the economic side of it is critical to that.

20:54

Sidoti on UN fact finding mission

MATT DAVIS, Reporter: In 2017, he was part of the UN fact finding team that documented human rights abuses by the military against Myanmar’s ethnic groups – in particular the Rohingya.

21:12

CHRIS SIDOTI:  "And was there any more killing or burning during this time?"

MATT DAVIS, Reporter: The team also uncovered the source of the military’s power –

21:25

UN fact finding team press briefing

a shadowy business empire owned and operated by the generals.

CHRIS SIDOTI:  The fact finding mission has concluded

21:32

Sidoti interview

that they were not dependant on the parliament for their funding, but they had all these independent means of acquiring wealth for corruption, but also wealth for their operations, and we think we barely scratched the surface. But certainly the scratching that we did revealed the extent of the tentacles of the octopus.

21:41

GFX. MEHC/MEC

MATT DAVIS, Reporter: Two giant conglomerates are key to the military’s wealth: Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited and Myanmar Economic Corporation. Together, they have more than 130 business entities, from mining, to tourism, telecommunications, to banks, transportation, and even beer, funnelling at least 400 million dollars into military coffers each year.

21:59

Both conglomerates are controlled by the military’s top brass – the same people now in charge following the coup. But ultimate authority rests with the Commander in Chief, Min Aung Hlaing.

HTWE HTWE THEIN: In my disciplined speculation,

22:29

Htwe Htwe Thein. Super:
Dr. Htwe Htwe Thein
Curtin University

the coup has been triggered by the threat to economic interests of the military and their families. So that's a real core of it, that they don't want to be touched, and they don't want to be diluted.

22:46

Photo. Commander in Chief, Min Aung Hlaing

MATT DAVIS, Reporter: Since the coup,

23:04

GFX: MOGE

the military have now also taken over Myanmar’s lucrative oil and gas enterprise known as MOGE.

CHRIS SIDOTI: The coup has very significant economic implications not just political implications and MOGE is the key to that.

23:06

Chris Sidoti

MOGE is the principal generator of state revenue in Myanmar.

23:22

GFX. Map showing sanctions

MATT DAVIS, Reporter: The US, Canada, UK and the EU have begun adopting targeted sanctions against the military. Myanmar's regional neighbours, including Australia, are yet to act.

23:26

CHRIS SIDOTI: The country is in crisis. It needs international support. It's entitled to international support. Cut off the arms supply, cut off the cash flow, cut off the impunity of the military.

23:41

Yangon. Street GVs

Music

23:51

MATT DAVIS, Reporter: As the international community deliberates, a nation-wide civil disobedience movement continues,

24:01

Protestors spray painting

led by doctors, teachers and other civil servants. It’s shut down most public schools and hospitals.

MANNY MAUNG: The Myanmar people don't want these criminals to profit anymore from the money that should helping

24:07

Manny Maung

run the schools and the hospitals that they are supposed to be working at.

24:21

Women wearing spray painted tops

They do want to bring the economy down to its knees and they know what the consequences are.

24:25

Photos. Nilar Win at protest/with children

MATT DAVIS, Reporter: A teacher for more than 30 years, Nilar Win has joined the general strike.

24:34

Nilar Win phone interview/Military beating man

NILAR WIN: These rabid dogs going after them, one kid killed, one kid injured, one kid tortured. Every time I hear about it, or see these rabid dogs rounding them up, attacking them, it feels like they’re my own kids. I am so shaken by it. It’s so awful.

24:42

Photos. Nilar with children/with Civil Disobedience sign

MATT DAVIS, Reporter: Nilar is also wanted by the military and is in hiding. She says she won’t go back to the classroom until the military is out of power.

25:11

Protestors holding banner/ Nilar Win phone interview

NILAR WIN: If we keep protesting with firm belief and disobey their commands, they may fold and give in to our demands. But only if we keep trying.

25:1

Rural GV/Guns in rack

MATT DAVIS, Reporter: Six months on, a more deadly resistance to the military is now forming –

25:41

Defence force training in jungle

a people’s defence force. Young people from around the country are gathering in border regions to take up arms to return to attack the military in the towns and cities of Myanmar.

25:48

Aung Khant phone interview

This former protestor spoke to me from his tent in the jungle.

AUNG KHANT: Before the coup, I was just an ordinary youth with opportunities to choose my own future. I dreamt of getting a scholarship and studying abroad.

26:01

Defence force training in jungle

It’s the military who decided the fate of our souls. It’s very clear to me who my enemies are, and I am ready for them.

26:24

Defence force with guns and knives

MATT DAVIS, Reporter: In a dramatic escalation, they’re assassinating police, military and their informers.

AUNG KHANT: We are not just targeting anybody.

26:39

Aung Khant phone interview

We do our research, investigate their background. Are they in the military, or involved with the military? If we confirm they are, we send them a written warning.

26:52

Military trucks on road

If they don’t heed our warning, only then do we destroy them.

27:08

Bomb explodes on city street. Super:
PDF attack, Yangon, June 2021

27:11

Swe Win sits before altar meditating

Music

27:23

SWE WIN: Day to day, we are traumatised by all this bloody news. News of arrest, news of torture, news of killings. Without meditation, we can lose sanity, we can break down, we can get stressed, very, very easily. Lose our energy in our day-to-day work. I had a phone call from a colleague that

27:35

Swe Win interview

the junta's chief, Min Aung Hlaing house in Yangon was raided. We are still trying to substantiate this. I'm not sure. There are a lot of rumours in a chaotic country like ours.

28:07

But sometimes these rumours turn out to be true. I wish this rumour became true news.

28:29

Swe Win walks by sea

Most of my colleagues are in their 20s and 30s. They don’t understand about fear, because they have never experienced what a prison is like, what torture is like, so they don’t know actually what to fear. I remind them, this is very dangerous actually. Our work is very dangerous. We are trying to do as much as we can, to play our roles in fighting against the military rule and giving a more honourable, a more dignified life to the future generation.

28:45

Animated music clip

Music

29:23

CARD:
Dedicated to all the people in Myanmar who risked their lives to make this film possible.

29:44

Credits [see below]

29:48

Out point

30:15