WEBVTT - How To Build A Revolution: Myanmar, Part Four 0:00:15.560 --> 0:00:18.200 Through the time we were reporting this story, Robert and 0:00:18.239 --> 0:00:22.320 I walked miles and miles around the streets Maysot. Being 0:00:22.320 --> 0:00:25.040 the only two journalists in town and also both giant 0:00:25.079 --> 0:00:27.840 white guys, we kind of stood out and taking a 0:00:27.880 --> 0:00:30.840 taxi to a sensitive interview isn't always the smart choice. 0:00:31.520 --> 0:00:33.519 Even when it was, they frequently dropped us off in 0:00:33.520 --> 0:00:37.440 a wrong place and we'd end up walking anyway. Everyone 0:00:37.600 --> 0:00:40.879 in Masot rides scooters, but riding without a helmet can 0:00:40.880 --> 0:00:43.519 get you a fine. We figured that, as relative novices 0:00:43.600 --> 0:00:46.360 to the world of scooting, we probably fucked something up 0:00:46.640 --> 0:00:52.879 and we probably better off walking. When the time came 0:00:52.920 --> 0:00:55.040 to meet me out, though he offered us a ride 0:00:55.280 --> 0:00:57.360 that was very nice, but it put us in an 0:00:57.360 --> 0:01:01.400 interesting position. What exactly you say when a guy you've 0:01:01.400 --> 0:01:03.640 never met, who's a friend of a guy you DMed 0:01:03.680 --> 0:01:06.480 on Reddit who know is engaged in the illegal production 0:01:06.520 --> 0:01:09.080 and smuggling of guns into a war zone officers to 0:01:09.080 --> 0:01:10.400 pick you up at a cafe so you can go 0:01:10.440 --> 0:01:13.480 out for dinner. We decided to call our friend, a 0:01:13.520 --> 0:01:15.280 long suffering guy we go to when we have a 0:01:15.319 --> 0:01:19.479 security question, Paul. At his request, We're keeping him anonymous, 0:01:19.920 --> 0:01:22.480 but he works in security and has an extensive professional 0:01:22.480 --> 0:01:27.679 background dealing with situations just like this, or maybe mostly 0:01:27.760 --> 0:01:27.959 like this. 0:01:28.160 --> 0:01:28.319 Yeah. 0:01:28.360 --> 0:01:30.840 So basically, Paul, we're meeting with these people. 0:01:32.480 --> 0:01:36.160 We don't have an established human chain with them of trust. 0:01:36.720 --> 0:01:38.920 They're they're just a Reddit account that James has been 0:01:38.920 --> 0:01:42.039 talking with. But for like six or seven months. It 0:01:42.040 --> 0:01:43.960 doesn't really seem like there's much else we can do 0:01:44.360 --> 0:01:49.160 besides keep our eyes open and try to meet in 0:01:49.160 --> 0:01:50.000 a digital place. 0:01:52.040 --> 0:01:52.280 Yeah. 0:01:52.320 --> 0:01:56.520 I mean, the big concern is they would be get 0:01:56.560 --> 0:02:00.760 the government, which is not from what you guys have said. 0:02:01.560 --> 0:02:08.280 The government simply doesn't have the wherewithal to do operations 0:02:08.320 --> 0:02:11.399 like this, and I mean rebel groups like this, they're 0:02:11.440 --> 0:02:17.720 they're trying, they want to get everything out there they can. So, yeah, 0:02:18.040 --> 0:02:20.600 is there a concern about the fact that you don't 0:02:20.600 --> 0:02:24.239 have a chain of people that can vouch for each other. 0:02:24.480 --> 0:02:27.799 Yeah, but the situation therein. 0:02:29.760 --> 0:02:34.320 Everything's in their favor, they are, everything's in your favor. 0:02:34.360 --> 0:02:38.160 Even minor cultural faux pause shouldn't be an issue. 0:02:38.400 --> 0:02:40.840 With Paul's help, we came up with a watertight plan. 0:02:41.120 --> 0:02:43.000 I should note here that he was at least as 0:02:43.040 --> 0:02:45.280 concerned with our fate as he was with the fate 0:02:45.320 --> 0:02:47.640 of the pair of pants he'd loaned James for the trip. 0:02:48.440 --> 0:02:50.480 And I mean, yeah, it's a story that needs to 0:02:50.480 --> 0:02:50.840 get out. 0:02:50.919 --> 0:02:58.360 So being slightly lax on the rules while knowing that 0:02:59.680 --> 0:03:01.919 it's an everybody's favorite that it goes well. 0:03:03.400 --> 0:03:05.080 I guess you gotta been the rules sometimes. 0:03:06.720 --> 0:03:08.000 I guess we'll check in. 0:03:08.480 --> 0:03:09.720 We'll try to proof of life. 0:03:09.800 --> 0:03:10.919 Yeah, we'll do a proof of life. 0:03:11.840 --> 0:03:12.240 I will. 0:03:12.360 --> 0:03:14.560 I will send you a picture of James holding a 0:03:14.560 --> 0:03:20.400 piece of paper that says big wife guy. And if 0:03:20.520 --> 0:03:22.560 if we are kidnapped, I'll send you a picture of 0:03:22.639 --> 0:03:26.040 me that says Elon Musk will be a good custodian 0:03:26.080 --> 0:03:26.480 of Twitter. 0:03:27.760 --> 0:03:30.800 Okay, I'll know that that's the that's the sign. 0:03:31.000 --> 0:03:35.640 Yeah, you know, I'll yeah, yeah. 0:03:36.560 --> 0:03:39.640 I'll figure out something. Yeah, me and me and a 0:03:39.680 --> 0:03:42.880 few friends will be on our way. That sounds awful. 0:03:43.840 --> 0:03:45.320 James has my favorite pants. 0:03:45.920 --> 0:03:49.480 Yea, yeah, you gotta get those pants bag. 0:03:49.880 --> 0:03:51.360 Oh yeah, this is all about the pants. 0:03:51.640 --> 0:03:54.640 If I find James dead body, I'm getting those pants off. 0:03:55.240 --> 0:03:59.240 Luckily, both I and Paul's trousers made it back that night. Yeah, 0:03:59.280 --> 0:04:03.120 any damage was to several delicious plates of food. Milk. 0:04:03.400 --> 0:04:06.640 His fiance and their godfather were the most gracious hosts, 0:04:07.080 --> 0:04:10.120 and we decided not to record that first night. Instead, 0:04:10.120 --> 0:04:12.720 we met up the next day. But there is one 0:04:12.720 --> 0:04:14.600 thing from that night that I want to share with you. 0:04:15.280 --> 0:04:17.680 Rather than explaining it, I'll let the song me out 0:04:17.760 --> 0:04:20.279 played for us talk to you through the beautiful medium 0:04:20.320 --> 0:04:40.440 of punk music. Bella Choo, of course, is an anti 0:04:40.480 --> 0:04:44.040 fascist anthem. Then it's original version tells the story of 0:04:44.080 --> 0:04:46.960 a young partisan who says goodbye to his girlfriend before 0:04:46.960 --> 0:04:50.440 he goes off to fight Italian fascist. If he dies, 0:04:50.520 --> 0:04:52.839 he says he wants to be buried under a flower 0:04:52.839 --> 0:05:07.760 in the mountains so people will see it and remember him. 0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:13.520 Oh boo, no, no, they do not all job a job. 0:05:13.480 --> 0:05:15.200 A job, job job. 0:05:15.160 --> 0:05:18.479 Day, No dog gonna do they. 0:05:18.560 --> 0:05:20.320 M away episode. 0:05:21.560 --> 0:05:27.120 Rather shy oh, I guess a job A job, a job, 0:05:27.320 --> 0:05:27.960 job job. 0:05:29.720 --> 0:05:36.080 I want a job as same job wall photo and 0:05:36.279 --> 0:05:39.360 a nod A job as a job. 0:05:39.560 --> 0:05:41.159 Had a job job John. 0:05:41.200 --> 0:05:43.400 Do bas oh john jay? 0:05:43.480 --> 0:05:53.520 Dad's all okay, y'all shabat a job rather jo a job. 0:05:53.360 --> 0:05:58.360 A job, job jack. 0:05:58.800 --> 0:06:07.520 Job. After a few months of revolution, all our characters 0:06:07.560 --> 0:06:10.160 found themselves mourning their friends and many of them were 0:06:10.160 --> 0:06:13.120 in the mountains. Their struggle is one they see in 0:06:13.160 --> 0:06:16.000 the same vein as the Italian partisans who fought fascism 0:06:16.000 --> 0:06:18.680 in their mountains and the anti fascists who came from 0:06:18.720 --> 0:06:20.640 around the world to fight in the Spanish Civil War. 0:06:21.760 --> 0:06:24.839 I first heard that song Belachoo from a Spanish Civil 0:06:24.880 --> 0:06:27.839 War veteran, and it's a strange closing of the loop 0:06:27.960 --> 0:06:31.440 to be here sitting hearing it with young people who, 0:06:31.720 --> 0:06:34.920 just like the Spanish Republicans, are fighting a coup with 0:06:35.000 --> 0:06:38.480 next to no international support and a critical shortage of weapons. 0:06:42.520 --> 0:06:44.880 But Miant was trying his best to fix that shortage. 0:06:45.360 --> 0:06:48.200 A month into what would become the Spring Revolution, and 0:06:48.240 --> 0:06:50.640 the stakes had become clear when the first protester would 0:06:50.640 --> 0:06:53.919 shot and they kept marching. When people decided to go 0:06:54.000 --> 0:06:57.040 back into the streets, they showed that the future of 0:06:57.080 --> 0:07:01.080 their country was worse dying for weeks later, some of 0:07:01.080 --> 0:07:04.039 them decided it was also worth killing for. It was 0:07:04.080 --> 0:07:07.080 about then that me Out's buddy and Keen Reddit use 0:07:07.120 --> 0:07:10.600 a Daddy UMCD said he'd been online we reckon they 0:07:10.600 --> 0:07:13.240 could use their three D printers, a steel pipe and 0:07:13.280 --> 0:07:16.480 the expertise and some strains on the internet to arm themselves. 0:07:17.800 --> 0:07:20.680 The promise of revolutionary technology would take quite some time 0:07:20.720 --> 0:07:23.720 to have any kind of battlefield impact in Meanmma, but 0:07:23.800 --> 0:07:25.840 the effects of a different kind of revolution would be 0:07:25.840 --> 0:07:29.520 felt immediately. But the nation's young activists took up arms 0:07:29.520 --> 0:07:30.360 against their government. 0:07:31.040 --> 0:07:34.520 Uh, I was like, I'm interested us in Horwest and 0:07:34.520 --> 0:07:37.960 three D printing especially my profession is a grand us 0:07:38.000 --> 0:07:41.720 some virtuariality and one the test three D prinding is 0:07:41.760 --> 0:07:44.840 my hobby. So I just do I just donload some 0:07:45.000 --> 0:07:48.280 five from thinking bus or other three D three D 0:07:48.320 --> 0:07:50.400 print in criminal dy and just do it for my 0:07:50.560 --> 0:07:54.400 dad's not specially especially. 0:07:54.000 --> 0:07:56.440 Yeah, yeah, desk toys and stuff. 0:07:56.480 --> 0:07:57.720 Yeah yeah, yeah, just a twice. 0:07:57.800 --> 0:07:59.800 Yes, what do you think of guns? Then? 0:08:00.440 --> 0:08:03.120 I have never emergined a care because you know, we 0:08:03.160 --> 0:08:05.480 have been living in a military booth for a long time, 0:08:06.000 --> 0:08:09.320 so we're afraid of soldier, especially not the soldier, especially 0:08:09.600 --> 0:08:12.640 the care that they hold. So we are so afraid 0:08:12.680 --> 0:08:15.560 of that, so we never imagine, like like we are 0:08:15.600 --> 0:08:18.000 the same as in Korea. We're so afraid of that, 0:08:18.280 --> 0:08:23.520 so we never imagine making gan. But after that the story. 0:08:23.240 --> 0:08:28.800 Began at first and his team felt safe despite the 0:08:28.880 --> 0:08:31.520 dangerous nature of their work. He felt the Topmador was 0:08:31.560 --> 0:08:33.400 so behind the times they wouldn't even know what a 0:08:33.400 --> 0:08:34.319 three D printer. 0:08:34.320 --> 0:08:38.679 Was like at those tide the military didn't didn't know 0:08:38.840 --> 0:08:42.199 or didn't give out a funk about brind So it 0:08:42.280 --> 0:08:45.240 is okay at those time, it's really okay. And when 0:08:45.840 --> 0:08:49.800 when day can we need to hide the campus if 0:08:49.840 --> 0:08:51.760 they see three D printer, that that's okay because we 0:08:51.800 --> 0:08:54.920 were saying this is for our job or for some 0:08:55.080 --> 0:08:57.480 hobby that we can say at those times, but not 0:08:57.559 --> 0:09:01.040 this time. If this time, if they found trainder, yes, 0:09:01.200 --> 0:09:05.800 cam can go to day like yeah or hashot headshot. 0:09:05.960 --> 0:09:06.200 Yeah. 0:09:06.920 --> 0:09:10.280 Soon that headshot became a lot closer to being a possibility. 0:09:10.880 --> 0:09:15.319 It's like as soon as we we we finished the 0:09:15.520 --> 0:09:19.400 second second APCNI, we try and to do tasted in 0:09:19.520 --> 0:09:24.520 Yangon and we send it to our warehouse. But unfortunately, uh, 0:09:24.640 --> 0:09:28.800 this warehouse is exposed and uh ambushed by the military 0:09:29.080 --> 0:09:33.400 and this gun is taken by the military. Uh. And 0:09:33.640 --> 0:09:37.480 they they did announced this on the new by pataring 0:09:37.559 --> 0:09:43.960 this uh like like Hamdmaigins and Podle give fun about 0:09:44.000 --> 0:09:46.880 this just a ham again they just stay at the 0:09:47.000 --> 0:09:50.319 very first time. But later and later later and Lada 0:09:50.400 --> 0:09:54.559 when they were uh the second time they were arrest 0:09:54.600 --> 0:09:58.360 there a this time that they arrested my revolutionary from 0:09:58.360 --> 0:10:02.400 my team. So I told hand about the efficiency and 0:10:02.480 --> 0:10:05.200 how do you use and the history. Also the gamp 0:10:05.640 --> 0:10:09.199 at the time maybe maybe he was, you know, investigator 0:10:09.400 --> 0:10:12.559 and he told the crew I was that He says 0:10:12.600 --> 0:10:15.959 like the nine yeah, and now and now was the 0:10:16.080 --> 0:10:19.959 name nine like this before before the at the very 0:10:19.960 --> 0:10:24.240 first antee and now the gamp from the Turkish gap. 0:10:24.080 --> 0:10:28.319 From if you missed that, they thought the guns were Turkish. 0:10:28.400 --> 0:10:30.199 The reason we giggled at this is that whenever we 0:10:30.240 --> 0:10:32.640 see videos of combat in me and mar James and 0:10:32.679 --> 0:10:34.280 I send them to a group chat and try to 0:10:34.320 --> 0:10:36.720 work out what the weapons are and where they came from. 0:10:37.120 --> 0:10:39.480 Nearly every time we're stumped. The guns turned out to 0:10:39.520 --> 0:10:42.120 be some kind of niche Turkish shotgun made to look 0:10:42.200 --> 0:10:45.400 like an AR fifteen. It seems the military were operating 0:10:45.400 --> 0:10:48.679 on the same assumption, only this time they were very wrong. 0:10:59.360 --> 0:11:02.440 Like Allan's k Yok started this second, more deadly phase 0:11:02.480 --> 0:11:04.880 of the Spring Revolution by taking a trip out to 0:11:04.920 --> 0:11:07.440 the jungle, and he stayed for several months to learn 0:11:07.480 --> 0:11:09.480 some of the skills he was going to need to 0:11:09.559 --> 0:11:11.320 fight back against the top Madar. 0:11:12.200 --> 0:11:15.840 I was going the Mandai as a culminated data so 0:11:17.200 --> 0:11:21.000 I'm not like the I'm not have a video training 0:11:21.080 --> 0:11:23.640 or something like that. I just going as a culminated aga. 0:11:23.840 --> 0:11:27.880 So I met with Gan specially or Sam Trena, and 0:11:28.040 --> 0:11:30.960 I said, I want to know how to shoot Gan, 0:11:31.080 --> 0:11:33.560 how to ask Mber the gang. So they teach me, 0:11:34.160 --> 0:11:38.040 I said, saying, I'm an acuminadaga. I can't do the trainer, 0:11:38.480 --> 0:11:42.040 but I want to lamb the books out of things. 0:11:42.360 --> 0:11:45.560 So they sent me some videos that ideas to lamb 0:11:45.600 --> 0:11:46.160 by myself. 0:11:46.240 --> 0:11:46.440 Yes. 0:11:46.559 --> 0:11:50.560 Yes, Later he went back to carry prototype printed guns 0:11:50.600 --> 0:11:53.280 to the EAOs for testing. We asked if it was 0:11:53.320 --> 0:11:56.720 scary being an undercover gun runner in a dictatorship. He 0:11:56.760 --> 0:11:58.680 says it was, but he found that he had a 0:11:58.720 --> 0:12:01.319 powerful ally in his fire. Homophobia. 0:12:01.920 --> 0:12:06.520 Yeah, but we need to discus it, so you know, yeah, 0:12:06.559 --> 0:12:08.680 disguises though. I just that I have a long hair, 0:12:09.400 --> 0:12:12.040 so I act like a day So you know that 0:12:12.160 --> 0:12:15.520 the military has sold China and equality, so. 0:12:15.400 --> 0:12:16.320 They hate gays. 0:12:16.880 --> 0:12:17.280 That's why. 0:12:17.440 --> 0:12:19.240 Just just our advantage. 0:12:19.360 --> 0:12:23.000 The military assuming Miok was gay and therefore incapable of fighting, 0:12:23.320 --> 0:12:25.920 let him go. Miok kept his mouth shut and let 0:12:25.960 --> 0:12:28.440 their homophobia help him smuggle the guns with which he 0:12:28.440 --> 0:12:30.840 hopes to help topple the regime that places so much 0:12:30.880 --> 0:12:33.880 stock and values like these. Miok said he had to 0:12:33.880 --> 0:12:35.840 go to the jungle to prove that his guns worked 0:12:35.960 --> 0:12:38.920 because at first the eeos didn't believe him. 0:12:39.160 --> 0:12:43.840 About again, no one, no one believes believed that. No 0:12:43.880 --> 0:12:47.880 one believes that. So we have to make made it 0:12:47.920 --> 0:12:51.599 first and show them. So we made it first. I 0:12:51.800 --> 0:12:55.800 wish that we got again. It's it's a sulfu. We lie, 0:12:56.280 --> 0:12:58.560 we need to lie, and we send this to the EO. 0:12:58.960 --> 0:13:01.600 Then they made it and it didn't walk out and 0:13:01.679 --> 0:13:03.080 the achas and it walk out. 0:13:03.200 --> 0:13:04.520 Yeah, okay, yeah. 0:13:04.720 --> 0:13:06.319 How do they feel. 0:13:06.040 --> 0:13:09.840 When they oh, oh, oh my my one of my 0:13:09.920 --> 0:13:14.119 revolutionary and EO s. They said, oh, they're really really happy. 0:13:14.280 --> 0:13:17.040 They said all that, all of the brand that and 0:13:17.520 --> 0:13:20.120 campaigns for this, let's do it right now. Yes. 0:13:20.200 --> 0:13:22.960 Yeah, almost everyone we met spent time in the jungle. 0:13:23.280 --> 0:13:25.680 Rooney that's a nom the gear, not a given name, 0:13:26.000 --> 0:13:28.800 started off as a protester, and just like everyone else, 0:13:28.840 --> 0:13:31.120 he fled into the jungle to avoid being murdered by 0:13:31.120 --> 0:13:34.199 the government and to learn from the ethnic armed organizations 0:13:34.240 --> 0:13:35.360 how to fight back. 0:13:35.600 --> 0:13:38.840 When we try and make peaceful protesting and it's really 0:13:38.880 --> 0:13:42.680 break down. Then he decided like he also we, so 0:13:42.760 --> 0:13:45.600 we decided to choose to have a hands and to 0:13:45.640 --> 0:13:48.120 make it to make a revolution. So at this times 0:13:48.120 --> 0:13:51.360 he goes to the e or stays and he lands 0:13:51.720 --> 0:13:55.760 the trainings, you know, even especially the explosive trainees, and 0:13:55.960 --> 0:13:58.319 he got back to the town and he's started making 0:13:58.360 --> 0:14:00.960 this explosive with the head of teachings. 0:14:01.640 --> 0:14:04.400 After learning from the eeos, he came back to Yangon 0:14:04.520 --> 0:14:06.960 to put his knowledge to use. Of course, just like 0:14:07.040 --> 0:14:09.920 Miyok's gun making team and the street protesters who learned 0:14:09.920 --> 0:14:12.640 from Hong kongers, he took to YouTube and Google to 0:14:12.640 --> 0:14:15.160 try and find a better way to build killing machines. 0:14:15.600 --> 0:14:18.040 So it's like the EO teach us the very business 0:14:18.040 --> 0:14:23.760 exposed just kembaumb like this, but after the land a 0:14:23.920 --> 0:14:29.000 very business then and they want to improve. So the lambindself, 0:14:29.120 --> 0:14:33.240 it's just like Di I y the lam googear with YouTube, 0:14:33.600 --> 0:14:36.720 so later and later even they can make tan T 0:14:36.880 --> 0:14:37.480 and DN. 0:14:37.960 --> 0:14:40.200 Yes. 0:14:40.200 --> 0:14:44.520 Of course, nearly everyone we met at some point googled 0:14:44.560 --> 0:14:48.040 something like how to make gun or how to make bomb. 0:14:48.600 --> 0:14:51.680 Now this is not ideal opsect, but it speaks to 0:14:51.720 --> 0:14:55.280 the desperation of the times. They used crowdfunding websites to 0:14:55.320 --> 0:14:58.240 raise money for ingredients, and Rooney soon started putting his 0:14:58.320 --> 0:15:01.920 knowledge into practice. What that meant was that people died. 0:15:02.360 --> 0:15:05.440 He killed human beings with the explosives that he made. Now, 0:15:05.440 --> 0:15:07.680 those people would have killed Rooney or anyone else we've 0:15:07.720 --> 0:15:10.560 spoken to in this series. He was defending himself and 0:15:10.600 --> 0:15:13.920 others by making killing machines. But still, if you're a 0:15:13.960 --> 0:15:16.840 decent person, it's not easy to watch your work result 0:15:16.840 --> 0:15:18.960 in a stranger being blown into a pink mist. 0:15:19.720 --> 0:15:23.120 He is not proud of that, but you know he 0:15:23.200 --> 0:15:26.040 is never trying to ky event a cat on any man. 0:15:27.160 --> 0:15:29.560 He is sad, but he had to do because of revolution. 0:15:30.160 --> 0:15:34.520 Yes, revolution was in Rooney's blood. The military had stolen 0:15:34.560 --> 0:15:36.360 his house as a kid, and he'd grown up with 0:15:36.400 --> 0:15:38.920 his uncle sharing memories of the nineteen eighty eight pro 0:15:38.960 --> 0:15:43.000 democracy uprising and its violent repression. He'd seen his family, 0:15:43.160 --> 0:15:46.720 his cousin brothers, and their parents harassed for his whole life. 0:15:47.120 --> 0:15:50.160 Now he had a chance to fight back. He carried 0:15:50.200 --> 0:15:52.960 out hundreds of missions before he eventually had to flee 0:15:53.000 --> 0:15:56.000 the city when an accident led to serious injury. 0:15:57.640 --> 0:16:01.680 To Jone Saba. There is a nine mission, so he 0:16:02.040 --> 0:16:04.960 has to be made nine bone. Yeah, really bit bone. 0:16:05.000 --> 0:16:09.640 So they did trying to assembly this bowl as one 0:16:09.680 --> 0:16:13.840 of his friends smoking and this this famy is called Gamhau. 0:16:16.400 --> 0:16:18.400 After the blast, he had to run away from his 0:16:18.480 --> 0:16:21.320 house before the police arrived. His friend was not so 0:16:21.440 --> 0:16:24.880 lucky and is in jail now. Rooney is mostly recovered, 0:16:24.960 --> 0:16:26.960 but it's not safe for him to go back, so 0:16:27.000 --> 0:16:29.360 he's hoping to make a new start in Massont. 0:16:34.520 --> 0:16:36.760 The fight didn't stay in Yangon, in Napid or either. 0:16:37.520 --> 0:16:40.200 For villages living outside, the coup was just as real, 0:16:40.320 --> 0:16:43.600 and so was a desire to fight back. People outside 0:16:43.600 --> 0:16:46.040 of town found themselves in the crosshouse at the Topmador 0:16:46.080 --> 0:16:49.800 as well. The military employs a strategy which they call 0:16:49.920 --> 0:16:53.840 four cuts. It's designed to alienate the rebels from local support. 0:16:54.400 --> 0:16:57.400 It doesn't work. His kind of SCORCHDF stuff has never worked. 0:16:57.840 --> 0:17:00.360 Didn't work when the Nazis tried in Europe, did work 0:17:00.360 --> 0:17:02.480 when the US tried it in the Middle East of Vietnam. 0:17:03.200 --> 0:17:05.879 Doesn't work when Israel keeps doing it, and it doesn't 0:17:05.920 --> 0:17:09.280 work in Meanmar. What it does do is drive people 0:17:09.280 --> 0:17:11.080 who lose their families to pick up a gun and 0:17:11.160 --> 0:17:14.919 kill soldiers. And it's not hard to see why. I 0:17:15.040 --> 0:17:17.000 just want to play you our conversation watching one of 0:17:17.040 --> 0:17:19.560 Andy's videos about one of hundreds of masacrets that have 0:17:19.600 --> 0:17:23.520 happened since last February, and as a warning, the stuff 0:17:23.520 --> 0:17:25.320 we're going to talk about, it's about horrible as stuff 0:17:25.359 --> 0:17:25.600 can be. 0:17:26.200 --> 0:17:30.840 But yeah, basically about I think twenty eight people would 0:17:30.880 --> 0:17:31.440 kill that day. 0:17:31.560 --> 0:17:33.400 They just came into a village and shot everyone. 0:17:34.600 --> 0:17:38.119 That's a handmade guns that these villagers had, but it 0:17:38.280 --> 0:17:40.440 was just they weren't shooting anyone. 0:17:40.119 --> 0:17:44.200 Though, they just had that's all that. Everyone died. All 0:17:44.240 --> 0:17:45.040 these guys died. 0:17:46.600 --> 0:17:56.400 Look at that his hands tied. Yeah yeah, yeah, that's 0:17:56.480 --> 0:17:57.680 what electrical. 0:17:57.240 --> 0:17:57.960 Game it looks like. 0:17:58.520 --> 0:18:00.440 And they burned the whole village. Now yeah they do, 0:18:02.640 --> 0:18:11.960 yeah you guys, Yeah. 0:18:11.800 --> 0:18:16.880 Yeah, hell, And that's why we say massacre because it's 0:18:16.920 --> 0:18:18.760 fucking look at all the brains up, you know. 0:18:21.160 --> 0:18:23.639 Yeah, all these kids, they weren't even eighteen. 0:18:25.760 --> 0:18:28.159 So all the villagers that run away, they took a 0:18:28.160 --> 0:18:30.080 photo of the village from Afar, and. 0:18:30.760 --> 0:18:33.000 They burned their relatives and then left. 0:18:33.200 --> 0:18:39.320 Yeah, O Jesus fucking Christ. 0:18:40.920 --> 0:18:43.960 And he says a nonprofit called Liberate Mianba supports the 0:18:44.040 --> 0:18:47.600 families every month, keeping them fared and sheltered, because however 0:18:47.640 --> 0:18:50.280 hard the government tries to divide the people from one another, 0:18:50.720 --> 0:18:53.840 it always seems to fail. Instead, it just pushes them 0:18:53.840 --> 0:19:16.680 closer and closer together. While we were in Thailand having 0:19:16.680 --> 0:19:18.639 a drink on a rooftop actually and talking about some 0:19:18.760 --> 0:19:20.959 kind of meditation retreat that a guy we'd met had 0:19:21.000 --> 0:19:22.960 gone on, we got to see some of the action 0:19:23.040 --> 0:19:25.840 for ourselves. That night was a fun one. We were 0:19:25.880 --> 0:19:28.360 hanging out with some nonprofit folks and we'd acquired some 0:19:28.520 --> 0:19:31.920 pretty terrible whiskey. At various points in the evening we 0:19:31.960 --> 0:19:34.040 would ambush one of the boys and tell them they've 0:19:34.080 --> 0:19:36.480 been shot in the arm or the leg, and have 0:19:36.520 --> 0:19:39.280 the others rush into practice they stop the bleed skills. 0:19:39.800 --> 0:19:42.960 Robert and I demonstrated some improvised carrying techniques and how 0:19:42.960 --> 0:19:44.880 to effectively turn and drop to the floor when you're 0:19:44.880 --> 0:19:47.800 in the intimate presence of a grenade. Everyone else at 0:19:47.840 --> 0:19:50.040 the party probably thought we were pretty strange, but we 0:19:50.040 --> 0:19:54.000 were having fun. Then in the distance we saw a 0:19:54.080 --> 0:19:57.040 huge yellow flash. It took a few seconds of us 0:19:57.040 --> 0:19:59.160 all wondering if that whiskey had sent us blind before 0:19:59.160 --> 0:20:02.199 the boom reached us. At first we thought it's one 0:20:02.240 --> 0:20:03.760 of the air strikes that have been happening in the 0:20:03.760 --> 0:20:06.520 border region. But it was close and it was just 0:20:06.560 --> 0:20:09.159 one huge boom, not the rockets had cluster bombs the 0:20:09.200 --> 0:20:13.520 Tupma door liked to drop on civilians. Within minutes, minutes 0:20:13.520 --> 0:20:15.600 of nervously waiting on the rooftop to see what was 0:20:15.640 --> 0:20:19.439 coming next, and his phone started buzzing. It was a 0:20:19.440 --> 0:20:21.640 car bomb and it had gone off about one hundred 0:20:21.720 --> 0:20:23.880 yards from the border where we stood earlier that day. 0:20:24.640 --> 0:20:32.879 A camera or something let me see, Yeah, right, scam, 0:20:33.680 --> 0:20:35.320 How did they fucking get it in there? 0:20:36.040 --> 0:20:39.960 Immediately we had questions, but very few answers. Car bombs 0:20:39.960 --> 0:20:41.960 hadn't been the thing thus far in the revolution. This 0:20:42.119 --> 0:20:46.720 was new. Car bombs are also extremely scary. It's hard 0:20:46.840 --> 0:20:48.840 not to be around cars in a city, and when 0:20:48.840 --> 0:20:51.280 any one of those cars might kill you, it's hard 0:20:51.280 --> 0:20:53.800 to do anything feeling any semblance of safety. 0:20:54.359 --> 0:20:56.560 I want to know who's did what I mean in 0:20:56.640 --> 0:20:56.960 the air. 0:20:59.760 --> 0:21:01.879 Yeah, no car bombs. I've never heard of it. 0:21:03.280 --> 0:21:05.720 It hasn't yet. 0:21:06.080 --> 0:21:07.239 Is it somebody who driving it? 0:21:07.359 --> 0:21:10.800 Or do they like I don't think if someone driving it? 0:21:10.840 --> 0:21:12.439 Is it like you don't see anything there? 0:21:12.480 --> 0:21:14.280 Like uh no, I mean it could have Wait is 0:21:14.320 --> 0:21:16.600 it by the because if if there was a person, 0:21:16.640 --> 0:21:18.120 there wouldn't be anything left. 0:21:18.280 --> 0:21:21.159 Yeah, no, no, no, But the thing is, Look, there's the 0:21:21.240 --> 0:21:23.720 fence like that that looks like it was there when 0:21:23.720 --> 0:21:25.760 it was Yeah, it was. 0:21:25.880 --> 0:21:29.280 It looks like it's the shocks. Yeah, it's right by 0:21:29.320 --> 0:21:30.000 the bridge. 0:21:30.160 --> 0:21:32.159 But I don't know why what this what happened. 0:21:32.600 --> 0:21:34.720 We still aren't sure who set off the car bomb, 0:21:35.000 --> 0:21:37.480 or if anyone died. In a conflict like the one 0:21:37.480 --> 0:21:40.480 in Meanmar, it's sometimes as confusing as it is scary. 0:21:41.000 --> 0:21:43.520 The military are more than capable of a false flag 0:21:43.560 --> 0:21:47.040 style attack, killing civilians and then blaming the PDF, and 0:21:47.080 --> 0:21:50.879 it has done this before. That's what totalitarianism does. It 0:21:50.880 --> 0:21:54.359 aims to control every aspect of everyday life, even the truth. 0:21:54.880 --> 0:21:58.160 The jungle haunted us the whole time we were there, unattainable, 0:21:58.160 --> 0:22:00.720 but right next door, just a few miles away, in 0:22:00.800 --> 0:22:04.240 lochhe Kaw, the fight was raging. Lakee Kaw is what's 0:22:04.280 --> 0:22:07.320 called a friendship town. It was built with Japanese money 0:22:07.320 --> 0:22:09.280 as a place for k and U fighters to live 0:22:09.320 --> 0:22:12.080 after they put down their arms. It was supposed to 0:22:12.119 --> 0:22:14.040 be a symbol of hope in a new, peaceful and 0:22:14.080 --> 0:22:18.800 democratic mianmar Now it's a battlefield. But while we couldn't 0:22:18.840 --> 0:22:21.000 get there, we could walk along the river bank and 0:22:21.000 --> 0:22:23.080 look at the jungle and imagine what it must be 0:22:23.200 --> 0:22:26.560 like up in those mountains, which we did almost every day. 0:22:26.880 --> 0:22:30.040 Myanmar itself looms like a mountain over the town of Maysaut. 0:22:30.320 --> 0:22:33.080 It's a border town without a border, but the city 0:22:33.119 --> 0:22:36.480 is surrounded by refugee camps, non profit offices, and even 0:22:36.560 --> 0:22:39.440 museums for political prisoners that can't exist on the other 0:22:39.520 --> 0:22:42.520