The civil war in Myanmar is growing ever more complex. This week, a rebel group, the Kachin Independence Army, claimed complete control of a government military base in a town along the Chinese border.
Not too long ago, the Southeast Asian country was poised for a very different future. But in February of 2021, Myanmar’s military overthrew the elected government of reformist politician Aung San Suu Kyi.
The blowback was immediate.
Resistance groups and militias took up arms in a popular uprising against the military junta that continues today.
In 2021, National Geographic Explorer Paul Salopek was in Myanmar. He had traveled there on foot as part of his project, Out of Eden Walk, tracing the path of human migration.
Salopek joined The World’s Host Carolyn Beeler to share his experience.
Carolyn Beeler: I want to start by listening to a video you shot in 2021 in Myanmar. There, some people are running for their lives down a narrow urban street in the city of Yangon. Others form a line holding makeshift riot shields. Paul, what sticks with you, years later, from this moment that you witnessed?
Paul Salopek: You know, I’ve covered a lot of conflicts. What struck me here was the innocence of this civil society, the pro-democracy protesters. These were generally young people, university students or even younger. And they were trying to organize to protest this coup by the military junta, and they were being pushed around by the military and then later the army. The army began shooting them in the head. It was quite brutal.
You say their innocence and youth … how did you see that in that scene?
Their optimism. They were very proud of being nonviolent, kind of in a Gandhian sense. They were proud of cleaning up after their protest marches. And most heartbreakingly of all, Carolyn, they were convinced that the world would come and rescue them. And I hated to tell them that I didn’t think the world was ready to do that in forgotten Myanmar. And indeed, three years or so later, the world still hasn’t.
You tell a story about being in lockdown in a COVID-19 quarantine hotel in Yangon when the first shots of this civil war were fired. Is that right? What was that like to be there at the very beginning?
It was surreal. COVID started the year before, and I had gone to Yangon to extend my visa, so I had to quarantine for two weeks in the city in a COVID hotel. And I started hearing crowds down below. I was up on, I think, the fifth or sixth floor and saw police mobilize in riot gear. There were shots being fired. They were starting to cut the internet, and I went into war correspondent mode. I’d covered wars for many years, so I retrieved my lunch out of the waste bin, what I hadn’t eaten, and I started filling up the bathtub with drinking water.
Wow. So you were preparing there. Did what you think based on your experience as a war correspondent come to pass?
No, thankfully. I mean, nobody assaulted the hotel. I thought they would do this because it was in a diplomatic quarter, or it was a fancy place that had been turned into kind of like a hospital, and there were all kinds of people there. I thought, “What a juicy target for hostages.” But that did not come to pass. We were, in fact, let out with a piece of handwritten paper, and I went to work. I started going down and talking to protesters.
What did the paper say?
It was just saying you’ve been discharged from this COVID hotel by the health ministry that no longer was in control.
Wow. You know, you learn a lot about people in times of crisis. What did you learn about the people of Myanmar, the Burmese people, seeing them thrown into this?
Yeah, it was incredible. They had just emerged from 50-plus years of really caveman-style military rule, right, with kind of these potbelly-craven generals who owned beer factories, owned all the companies and drove around in Mercedes. They [had] just kind of thrown that off and were enjoying the first few years of a fledgling democracy. And then this coup happened. So, I saw it as a war between the past and the future. Between the people who were on the streets, who were primarily young urbanites, kids who were tattooed globalists born into the internet. And the military were, kind of, you know, blowback to the 20th century, hardcore junta types.
How long were you there during the early days of the civil war?
I was actually trapped in Yangon because they were cutting off flights for several weeks. I had to make a very difficult call, Carolyn. With the borders closed, never mind COVID now, you know, [it was] a civil war that [would keep me] trapped there for a long time. So, I had to bite the bullet and take a flight out to China, to restart the walk in China.
How hard was that to leave? You’re a journalist, and this was a national, pivotal turning point for this country. But, of course, you have all those safety trade-offs to think about.
That’s true … and it doesn’t get any easier. It gets harder and harder. Just leaving people behind. Never mind the story. You make emotional connections with the people involved. It was very difficult. I think, as I wrote at the time, that you can walk away from a lot of things, but you can’t walk away from grief.
You walk with walking partners everywhere you go. I imagine it was hard to leave behind those you walked with in Myanmar. Do you know what has become of those folks?
I’ve had three of them, and I know what’s become of two. One I’ve lost track of. He lived up in the Chin Hills, which has been heavily assaulted by air assaults and National Army junta artillery. They practice what they call a war “four cuts” … the junta, the military leadership, where they basically exact collective punishment on villagers. So, they bomb villages. So, I’ve not heard from him. A second walking partner — and I’m not going to name them for their own security — is trying to flee his town right now. He’s frightened that it’s going to be cut off by the fighting in the jungle around him, and he and his family are trying to get out. And a third is in exile in Thailand.
You mentioned that in the early days of the conflict, there was optimism that the international community would come to the aid of the young, idealistic protesters. And yet, this conflict is still raging. How much of the news from Myanmar do you follow these days?
I try to follow it a lot, mostly through personal connections. It’s less easy to follow in the international media, simply because it’s one of the most invisible wars on the planet right now. To give you some examples: In Gaza, which is a terrible, terrible war, a catastrophe, up to, I think, 1.9 million people have been displaced and tens of thousands, up to 40,000 killed. Almost all of them civilians. And in Burma in Myanmar, there are up to 50,000 people killed, almost all of them civilians and more than 2 million displaced.
And that’s from the beginning of 2021?
That’s right. In the last three and a half years. Yeah.
So, you continued your walk. Of course, you went on to neighboring China. You’re speaking to us now from South Korea. What will stick with you from this period in Myanmar?
I think I’m just haunted by the fact that this whole generation of young people from Burma had their dreams and aspirations just cracked wide open in a way that kind of was hard to appreciate, in comparison to other older wars. I think their hopes, as you mentioned earlier in the program, you know, all of Burma was poised for this hopeful future to kind of finally cast off 50 years of military dictatorships. And then this curtain came down. I think it’s telling, and when I look back at my notes, the first person killed in the coup in Yangon was a 19-year-old girl.
Parts of this interview have been edited for length and clarity.
Writer and National Geographic Explorer Paul Salopek has embarked on a 24,000-mile storytelling trek across the world called the “Out of Eden Walk.” The National Geographic Society, committed to illuminating and protecting the wonders of our world, has funded Salopek and the project since 2013. Explore the project here. Follow the journey on X at @PaulSalopek, @outofedenwalk and also at @InsideNatGeo.
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