Kantarawaddy Times
The tragic killing of his uncle by the junta at what should have been the joyous occasion of his sister’s wedding is what drove Aung Nge to join the resistance.
The wedding was held in Six Mile Village, Demoso Township, Karenni State in April 2021, just months after the junta seized power in a coup.
The wedding day had started well with 18-year-old Aung Nge dressed in smart new clothes welcoming the guests. The morning was bright and pleasant and soon the event was buzzing with lively activity and excitement.
But, as the event was nearing its conclusion, around 50 junta soldiers and police stormed into the village, and began dismantling and removing roadblocks that anti-coup protesters had set up on the village road. At the time, anti-coup protests were still being violently suppressed by police and soldiers in rural areas, and armed resistance against the coup regime had not yet emerged.
As the soldiers and police approached the wedding venue Aung Nge’s uncle went to negotiate with them to see if he could get them to allow the wedding to conclude peacefully. But his attempt at dialogue was met with brutality. The soldiers’ response to his peaceful approach was to fire six bullets into him, killing him on the spot.
Now at 21 years old, he is known as Comrade Aung Nge, and is a resistance fighter admired for his courage and determination.
Whilst time has eroded the pain of his uncle’s untimely death and the tragedy that his sister’s wedding became, Aung Nge has never forgotten the events of that day that drove him to become a resistance fighter.
It was three months after the wedding that Aung Nge enlisted in the 71st batch of basic military training organised by the Karenni Army (KA).
After completing his training, Aung Nge was assigned to his home village of Six Mile Village in Demoso Township, where he has since been actively involved in the armed resistance against the coup junta.
Aung Nge admits that his decision to join the resistance was triggered by the cruelty of the junta forces who brutally murdered his uncle in front of him and ruined his sisters wedding. What drove him at the time was a burning desire for revenge rather than for revolution.
He said: “The Bamar [junta] soldiers themselves created the very person who would hunt them down… I saw my uncle shot dead at my sister’s wedding. It was a pain that no family member should have to endure, and it became the fuel that ignited my passion for the revolution.”
Since then Aung Nge has faced numerous personal hardships to participate in the revolution.
He said: “I have been fighting continuously since I completed the training. Over the past three years, I’ve faced numerous hardships. There were times when I reached the point of starvation due to food shortages, and I’ve been wounded on several occasions.”
During his three years as a resistance fighter Aung Nge has had many close brushes with death. To help deal with such trauma he and his comrades often use humour. After battles they gather round camp fires sharing and joking about the situations they have faced, which helps them to deal with the stress they constantly face.
Aung Nge said: “In reality, the situations we were facing were far from pleasant. But when we returned to the rear, it was comforting to know we had survived the battle, and we were able to look at those terrible experiences with a sense of humour.”
But, in February 2024, Aung Nge’s luck changed. On 12 February, during an operation to capture Shadaw Town in Shadaw Township, Karenni State he was badly injured.
“During the offensive to capture Shadaw, one of my legs was broken, which was a serious injury,” he said.
On a dark night he was part of a group assaulting a junta hilltop tactical operations command base that came under heavy enemy fire, but the resistance fighters continued with their assault. About 30 metres from the base shrapnel from a junta grenade broke Aung Nge’s right leg.
He was far from a hospital and his injury was life-threatening. It took his fellow resistance fighters over a week to get him to hospital. He was in constant pain and being moved was agony. It was only thanks to the the extraordinary efforts of the medics that Aung Nge survived.
He spent a week in hospital, but he asked his close comrades not to mention his injury to his family because he did not want to upset his mother. She loves him dearly and Aung Nge thought she would be devastated by the news of his injury.
“I didn’t want to tell my mum because my injury was so serious. I decided I’d tell her only after it healed. My mum is very sensitive, and I feared she might be shocked if she heard about my injury,” he said.
Since joining the resistance Aung Nge has not been able provide for his mother or visit her often, but he decided that it would be better to stay away during his rehabilitation so that she did not worry too much about his injuries.
He said: “After every operation, I would return to the barracks to rest, rarely going home. I felt it would be unfair to return to my mum only when I was injured. I didn’t want that situation, and I didn’t want to burden my mum with my problems.”
But, he missed his mother terribly whilst he was recovering from his injury, so he changed his mind and decided to visit his her on crutches with his legs still wrapped in bandages, straight after being discharged from hospital following a week’s treatment.
When the car he was in pulled up in front of his family’s home at the internally displaced persons (IDP) camp where they were living Aung Nge’s mother was stunned by his return. But, when she saw his bandaged leg she ran towards him crying.
“The car stopped right in front of my house, and at that moment, my mum was outside. As soon as I got out of the car, she ran to me and started crying. I couldn’t say anything either,” he said.
But it is not just Aung Nge’s mother who has to face worries and uncertainties about her son, it is the same for all the family members of the brave people who have chosen to join the resistance.
At the time of this interview, Aung Nge was going through rehabilitation away from the frontlines.
Currently, his main focus is on his rehabilitation, unfortunately he will never be able to walk normally again and will have a limp.
He said: “The way I walk now is uneven. The leg I broke is a bit shorter now, it’s not the same as before.”
But what really concerns Aung Nge is that he might no longer be fit enough to fight on the frontlines. He has already been away from the frontlines for almost a year, but he is eager to return and remains determined to do so.
“As long as I’m able to keep fighting, I will keep fighting the junta, “ he said.
