‘No regrets’: Myanmar dissidents evade junta with life on the run

June 17, 2021

By Dene-Hern Chen

BANGKOK (AFP) - Burner phones, safehouses, sheltering with rebels and months away from loved ones - Myanmar anti-coup activists have been driven underground by a brutal crackdown but have no regrets about choosing life on the run.

Myanmar has been in turmoil since the armed forces ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi in February, plunging the country back under military rule after a 10-year experiment with democracy.

The power grab triggered a massive uprising which the junta has sought to quell with mass arrests and bloody crackdowns.

Some - like longtime activist Thinzar Shunlei Yi - had always known they might have to leave their home and family in order to keep up their battle against the regime.

"It's something I expected in my life as an activist," she told AFP by phone from a hidden location.

The 29-year-old is among the hundreds of social media-savvy fugitives - social influencers, celebrities, activists and journalists - wanted by the junta for disseminating information that "causes fear".

"When (the coup) happened, we found that many people were on the run," she said. "We didn't expect that we would have an uprising like this and ordinary people would become protesters and activists."

Read more of this AFP story on The Straits Times.

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