Kayah State, Myanmar – When the military seized power in February 2021, Dr Ye was living a life many young people in Myanmar only dream of – working as a doctor in London. Hailing from a military-supporting family, he had given little thought to politics before then.
“Before the coup, I was brainwashed by them,” the 32-year-old told media during an interview in southern Shan State in December. “The coup enlightened me.”
But it also left him reeling with survivors’ guilt. He watched from afar as hundreds of people his age and younger were gunned down in the streets during peaceful pro-democracy protests. Soon, those protests morphed into an armed uprising, with the military deploying mass reprisals against the civilian population.
“For a while, I was donating money, but I wasn’t happy with that. Every morning when I woke up, I was depressed seeing news about the killings, the bombings, the burned down villages,” he said.
At his lowest point, Dr Ye even attempted suicide.
“I decided I had to come back and participate in the revolution physically,” he said.
In April 2022, he travelled to Kayah State, which shares a mountainous border with Thailand. A coalition of anti-coup armed groups has carved out significant territory there and in neighbouring southern Shan.
Dr Ye’s decision to move to this “liberated area” caused a rift in his family because his father is an official in the regime’s prison department in the nation’s capital of Naypyidaw.
“We totally split up, we don’t talk at all any more,” he said, adding that his father had even threatened him with arrest. “I don’t think he’ll ever change his mind.”
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