A frontline medic writes of two individuals she met in Kayah State, whose stories exemplify the diverse ways Myanmar’s youth are contributing to, and sacrificing for, the revolution.
As the conflict grinds on, every month brings fresh horrors. Since early last year, when I left my medical studies in Yangon and joined a team of several dozen medics in Karenni State (also known as Kayah), I have seen civilians and resistance fighters whose bodies have been mutilated by landmines and shrapnel from shells. Meanwhile, the forces of the military junta have repeatedly bombed our medical facilities, forcing us to move from place to place over rough and dangerous terrain.
I have recounted these ordeals in a previous article for Frontier, but in this follow-up piece, I will describe two individuals whose stories have, in very different ways, helped to bring meaning and purpose to our work, and put all our hardships in perspective.
The first individual is Maw Hpray Myar, a 23-year-old Karenni woman who founded the Htel Phoe Music Learning Centre in the state earlier this year. She first discovered her love of music aged 15, and by the time of the military coup in February 2021, she was studying music at a school founded by a South Korean organisation in Yangon.
The violin was her speciality, and she thought the instrument would take her far. “I wanted to be a violinist touring the world,” she told me when we met in Karenni. In addition, she demonstrated exceptional skills at the guitar and piano as well as a good command of musical theory.
But music is also intertwined with her Christian faith and her desire to uplift young people in Karenni villages, which have experienced decades of conflict, poverty and neglect. “I want to praise the Lord through music and teach children, so that they can empower and heal themselves through melodies,” she said.
So, when the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered schools in 2020, Hpray Myar returned to her family home near the border between Karenni and Shan states and taught music as a volunteer in nearby churches and orphanages.
When the military seized power early the following year, she said, “I was totally shocked and I felt lost, robbed of my dreams. But I knew we must fight back against that ugly and unfair coup, because we’re born to live by our beliefs.”
Like many other students she quit her studies and joined the Civil Disobedience Movement against military rule. “I wanted to complete my education and go abroad for further studies,” she said of what she was willing to sacrifice. “I wanted to return home to my small village as a successful violinist, but I couldn’t pursue my dreams under this military dictatorship.”
Hpray Myar played the violin during peaceful protests, which swept Myanmar in the weeks after the coup. But when the military brutally crushed these demonstrations, she wanted to swap the instrument for a gun and join the growing armed struggle. However, after successfully completing combat training, which she found “a very........