War Among Brethren
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BEYOND 1988 — REFLECTIONS

War Among Brethren


By AUNG NAING OO Saturday, October 16, 2010


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Sometimes, if the line was not clear, one side would say “Let’s go for a ride on the airplane”— meaning that he would switch his frequency to 747, referring to the jumbo jet, and ask his counterpart from the enemy side to follow suit or use a similar quote to change the channel.

Radio reports from the frontline to the headquarters were made on an hourly basis, providing details on the fighting, intelligence gathering or simply the current status of the outposts. However, leisurely conversations between the enemies took place after dinner or in the early evening, usually around 6 p.m.

The Wa and Khun Sa’s soldiers had done this many times and so knew the code names of their counterparts. Languages used also varied, from local languages to Burmese. Burmese was often used to disguise one’s true identity or because it was the lingua franca.

One day, a Mon-trained Wa officer was speaking to his counterpart in the rival Shan army. He told us that the two had spoken to each other a few times before. As usual, we listened to the conversation.

First, they talked about politics and fighting but quickly got bored because it was often the subject of discussion and knew that it was waste of time debating over unwinnable arguments. The casual conversation quickly took over and they started chatting about life in Shan state. 

The Wa officer said, “Where did you come from?” “Mong Hsu,” came the reply.

“Really? I'm from Mong Hsu, too,” said the Wa officer in a surprised and suspicious voice. “Then tell me about the school there.”

The conversation went on for a while—about the school, the names of some of the teachers, the location of the teashop where young men liked to meet and hang out, and other people and places in the town.

We listened attentively, feeling as if the conversation was nearing a climax. We sort of knew where it was heading, but we were in store for a complete surprise. 

The Wa officer and his counterpart in Khun Sa’s army were friends from the same neighborhood, went to the same school and studied under the same teacher. They had gone their separate ways after high school but the war had reconnected them—across the mountain as enemies.

As soon as the two men realized who they were speaking to, there was a silence. Suddenly we were engulfed in sadness. The Wa officer could not speak anymore. He held the walkie-talkie without saying a word. Then he looked up and saw us looking at him, equally sad and speechless.

A moment later, he turned his radio off and walked away without saying goodbye to all of us. It was a poignant moment. In my heart, I felt the silence of the radio in the trench across the ridge.

The war had come to many towns and villages of Shan State. It had drawn young men and women from multifarious ethnic groups into it with its many tentacles. They were not only fighting the Burmese government—they were also fighting among themselves.

The Wa officer and his Shan counterpart were not alone in fighting each other. There were others—brothers, family members from various ethnic groups in Shan State, and, as we learned later, those who were recruited, either willingly or unwillingly, into the war to fight for different groups. And it had claimed many lives and devastated many others.

For the first time, I realized that one could confront the follies, atrocities, irrationalities and realities of a war even while drinking tea or whiskey with friends in the comfort of a hut on a mountain a good safe distance away from the actual fighting.

Indeed, the war in Shan State had often been among friends, siblings and family members. That seemed irrational, but how could an ordinary high-school graduate or a simple farmer from the mountains resist when the forces of war were larger and far more powerful than himself?



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Ko Pauk Wrote:
21/10/2010
Actually, Bamas are Bamar. They are more brothers to Bangladeshis and Arakans. Bamar is nothing to do with Chin, Kachin, Karen, Shan and others. There is no brother relationship whatsoever. The Bamar is the invader. They are cheats and wicked people.

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