Antonio Graceffo
Shan State is home to dozens of ethnic groups and a corresponding array of armed organizations. The major ones include the United Wa State Army, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, the Ta’ang National Liberation Army, the Shan State Army-South, the Shan State Army-North, and the Pa-O National Army. These groups are broadly divided between those opposing the military junta, those aligned with it, and those maintaining ambiguous or shifting ceasefire arrangements. They frequently clash with one another as well as with the military.
Alignments change periodically, with some EAOs shifting sides. The MNDAA fought the junta as part of the Three Brotherhood Alliance’s Operation 1027 offensive but surrendered the city of Lashio back to the junta in April 2025 under Chinese pressure. The Pa-O National Army functions as a junta proxy, conducting joint operations with the Tatmadaw against civilian populations and rival armed groups. Vast areas of the state remain outside central government control. Drug trafficking and organized crime are embedded in the conflict economy, and China exercises political and economic influence over armed groups along its border. Civilians are caught between all of these forces.
Against this background of conflicting armed groups, Sai Kham Lu, an 18-year-old Shan boy from Tangyan Township in northern Shan State, explained why he fled to Thailand.
Sai Kham Lu’s parents are farmers, relying on their land for survival. He is the eldest child in his family and has a 15-year-old younger sister. Sai Kham Lu had just begun his first year of higher education, while his sister was attending high school.
“The UWSA was expanding its control in the area,” recounted Sai Kham Lu. He explained that when their armed forces reached his village, they began forcing young boys, some as young as ten years old, to join their army.
During the first two or three months, they collected information about the number of young men in the village. Later, they ordered the village head to send all boys for three months of military training. “They said that after the training, we could return home.”
Sai Kham Lu’s name was included on the list. “I tried to explain that I was still a student and needed to continue my education, but they ignored me,” he said. “They told me we could discuss returning to school after the training.”
With no real choice, he joined the three-month military training. However, once the training ended, the recruits were not allowed to return home. “After three months, we were sent to the frontline to build military bases and do hard labor,” he said. “They told us we were now full soldiers. I felt sad and hopeless.”
Realizing he would not be allowed to resume his studies, Sai Kham Lu contacted his parents. They discussed their options. If their son fled, the remaining relatives could be arrested, interrogated, or tortured.
His parents did not want their son to become a soldier, so they decided to escape together to Thailand. To avoid suspicion, Sai Kham Lu pretended to comply with orders and requested permission to visit home for three days. Once permission was granted, he returned to his village, and the family immediately fled.
After crossing the border into Thailand, relatives helped them search for work. Within a few days, they found employment as caretakers on an orange farm. The farm owner allowed them to live on the property and provided basic necessities, including shelter, rice, cooking oil, and salt.
For now, the family is safe from the war, and Sai Kham Lu is no longer a conscripted soldier. However, their lives remain uncertain. They exist in a legal limbo in Thailand. Like 1.7 to 2 million Myanmar nationals in Thailand, they are undocumented. They are in a country where they do not speak the language, although Shan people generally learn Thai quickly. They have no legal status, no health insurance, no upward mobility, no way to leave and go to a third country, and no pathway to citizenship in Thailand. Sai Kham Lu will have to jump through nearly insurmountable hurdles if he is to continue his studies.
No one knows when the war will end or when they can return to their homes. The larger conflict has been going for nearly 80 years, while the post-coup revolution is now in its fifth year. Until then, the family will have to find ways to survive. At least the whole family is together and they are not injured, which is more than many other Burmese in Thailand can say.
Many are lone mothers who know their older children are conscripts fighting somewhere in Burma. Others are young people looking for whatever undocumented work they can find so they can send money home to their parents, who are in internally displaced persons camps in Burma. Many have lost family members in the war, and some very unfortunate people have experienced all of the above and are now searching for work as laborers despite having prosthetic limbs. The number of civilians killed since the coup is in the thousands, but those whose lives have been destroyed number in the tens of millions.
Sai Kham Lu shared a simple message: “I am tired of living in a country with so many armed groups fighting each other. I want world leaders to help end military rule in our country.”
Antonio Graceffo is an economist and China expert who has reported extensively on Burma.
Comments
Post a Comment