My heart breaks as I watch Russian planes bombing civilian homes, displacing millions of refugees and committing crimes against humanity in Ukraine. Four thousand miles away from Ukraine, in my home country of Myanmar (also known as Burma), Russia has been complicit for decades in the violence of the Burmese military against its own citizens.
The military’s violent campaign reached new levels in February 2021, when it staged a bloody attempted coup against the democratically elected government. Since then, the Myanmar military — equipped with deadly weapons from Russia — has tortured and killed thousands of civilians, especially the country’s ethnic and religious minorities. One of the more shocking cases occurred on Christmas Eve, when more than 35 ethnic Karenni civilians were burned alive by the military.
These horrific events are not unprecedented. My aunt and uncle were among the Burmese military’s victims in the late 1970s. My aunt was gang-raped and tortured in front of my uncle. My uncle’s skin was sliced and rubbed with salt and chili. I was forced to leave my beautiful village to escape the state-sponsored violence on January 28, 1995. That was the last time I saw my home.
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