Unmasking Myanmar’s silent civil war: The untold battle for democracy | DW Documentary

Myanmar’s struggle for democracy has received little international attention. But it is dramatic: in 2021, more than 6,000 people were reported dead after protests against the military coup erupted. Airstrikes hit towns and villages and artillery shelled pockets of resistance. The world seems to have forgotten the civil war raging in Myanmar. Thousands of young people are risking death and sacrificing their youth to fight a military coup that has deposed an elected government and stolen their future. While the world was preoccupied with Covid and the horrors of the Russian war in Ukraine, this struggle began to play out in a country that had briefly opened the door to partial democracy under Aung San Suu Kyi — before a military junta slammed it shut again. In February 2021, young people took to the streets to protest the military coup staged earlier that month by Min Aung Hlaing, commander-in-chief of Myanmar’s armed forces. The protesters were horrified to discover that live ammunition was flying in their direction. People were being killed. A team of courageous filmmakers spent more than a year in Myanmar, bringing viewers closer to a civil war that has been largely ignored internationally.