Speaker 1: There is nowhere else quite like Messos. This town marks
Speaker 1: the border between Thailand and Miyamma. In fact, it runs
Speaker 1: right along where I'm walking now. These stores, all Burmese run,
Speaker 1: are actually on the other side. However, since the military
Speaker 1: coup in Maama five years ago, Messot's population has swollen
Speaker 1: by about four or five times as people fleeing the
Speaker 1: civil war over there have sought sanctuary here. This has
Speaker 1: become a town of fugitives, rebels, and spies, a town
Speaker 1: of hope and despair. And because it's so hard for
Speaker 1: people over there to speak freely, this is also one
Speaker 1: of the best places to hear what the people of
Speaker 1: Miyama feel about what's happening in their country. The military
Speaker 1: regime they ran away from is now more firmly entrenched
Speaker 1: than ever. With help from Russia and China, the army
Speaker 1: has been winning back territory it lost to armed opposition
Speaker 1: groups and coup leader Min online to give himself some
Speaker 1: legitimacy by holding an election rigged so the military's own
Speaker 1: party was guaranteed to win it. He's now getting greater
Speaker 1: recognition from regional powers like China. The revolutions so many
Speaker 1: young Burmese dreamed of has stalled, with the regime once
Speaker 1: again in control. On the other side, Nesot's border crossings
Speaker 1: have reopened. Most of the trade between the two countries
Speaker 1: passes this way, yet the civil war is not over.
Speaker 1: Large numbers of Burmese still make their way across this
Speaker 1: river informally without documents. Union Ong is one of them.
Speaker 1: She traveled one thousand miles to get here because her
Speaker 1: little boy needs an operation. Two years ago, she was
Speaker 1: among thousands of families driven out of her village by
Speaker 1: soldiers who charged in firing weapons. They had to survive
Speaker 1: in the forest for six months before starting the long
Speaker 1: trick to safety in Thailand.
Speaker 2: I'm a b b y'all. I'm an am Ama aima,
Speaker 2: oh lady.
Speaker 1: The heart of any town in Thailand is its main market,
Speaker 1: and here in Messots, pretty much everything they sell is Burmese.
Speaker 1: Most of the people working here are Burmese. In fact,
Speaker 1: the influx of people from Miama has been so big
Speaker 1: that Messots become pretty much an all Burmese town Now.
Speaker 1: A lot of people have come here to get away
Speaker 1: from the civil war. Some want to continue resisting military
Speaker 1: but there are also a great many people who have
Speaker 1: come simply to get better livings that they can't have
Speaker 1: back at them. This couple came for the birth of
Speaker 1: their first baby. The father is a former bartender turned
Speaker 1: fighter with one of the insurgent armies, so we can't
Speaker 1: identify him or his family. He's already keen to get
Speaker 1: back to the jungle to rejoin the fight against Minong
Speaker 1: Lions regime. Do you think one day you'll be able
Speaker 1: to go back to yangon.
Speaker 2: Ye? Sure?
Speaker 3: You're not sure. Maybe you have to.
Speaker 1: Fight for all of your life.
Speaker 2: Can I be somewe.
Speaker 1: Over on the other side of the border. His comrades
Speaker 1: keep up their unequal struggle against the army. But after
Speaker 1: more than five years of this war, with tens of
Speaker 1: thousands killed by air strikes, by land mines, and by
Speaker 1: a military regime with no regard for civilian casualties, some
Speaker 1: of those who joined the opposition are now exhausted and
Speaker 1: ready to stop this Warren of Rooms is one of
Speaker 1: the many safe houses that's been set up in Masop
Speaker 1: to shelter those who've just arrived from Yammar, And behind
Speaker 1: every one of these doors is a harrowing personal story.
Speaker 1: We're about to meet one young man who took up
Speaker 1: arms against the military regime at the age of just seventeen,
Speaker 1: was captured, jailed and dreadfully tortured. That now he says
Speaker 1: he's had a change of heart. He told me how
Speaker 1: he got involved in the mass protests which broke out
Speaker 1: all over mea after the coup. These were brutally suppressed
Speaker 1: by the army, and like so many young activists, he
Speaker 1: took up arms against the regime, launching attacks on the
Speaker 1: security forces in Mihama's main city, Yangon, and I.
Speaker 3: Put a timerbone near the policeician and I tried to
Speaker 3: assnake the informer of military government. I don't know the
Speaker 3: casual of these.
Speaker 1: He was eventually caught, and he says tortured and sexually
Speaker 1: assaulted by prison guards. In that time, he began to
Speaker 1: question the armed struggle.
Speaker 3: When I was in prison. My opinion is totally changed,
Speaker 3: and I think that I'm sureguis is over because they
Speaker 3: don't unite at all, They fight each other, and I
Speaker 3: feel like this kind of situation.
Speaker 1: So you lost faith in the armed struggle.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I saw many casualty in wars, and it's really
Speaker 3: difficult to see like like that and and give up Amstragger,
Speaker 3: and not only Amstragger, but also in other kinds of
Speaker 3: struggle in politics.
Speaker 1: You've given up altogether. You're not involved in the struggle.
Speaker 3: Now, Yeah, I just choose another way.
Speaker 1: So he's decided to study online and to teach children.
Speaker 1: Living in the safe house. Today they have a new neighbor,
Speaker 1: yuinion Ong has had to move here. She reached the
Speaker 1: limit allowed by her old safe house. She told me
Speaker 1: she really wants to return to her village. That while
Speaker 1: Men Online still runs the country, she doesn't dare go
Speaker 1: back tomorrow.
Speaker 3: Lucian or.
Speaker 2: Koramed or Hello, I'm Dushin, no nim Laza, not.
Speaker 1: Mania over here. She has no job and no status.
Speaker 1: She's always at risk of arrest or deportation. But she
Speaker 1: also has no choice. She needs to raise the money
Speaker 1: for her son's operation, so for now she must stay
Speaker 1: in Massot, just one of the millions of Burmese who've
Speaker 1: been forced to leave their own country.