When Tang Seng heard gunshots close to his village in Myanmar, he had a choice: carry his grandmother away from the fighting on his back or run for help. She asked him to kill her and leave her there but he refused.
Tang Seng walked out of his village carrying Supna Hkawn Bu to a makeshift camp for the displaced, where they remain with their family. She has had to flee from conflict five times in her life and didn’t speak for two days when they first arrived.
War in Myanmar is synonymous with the Rohingya crisis but Tang Seng and his grandmother are not Rohingya refugees. They are from the country’s north, in the state of Kachin, where another brutal but far less well publicised conflict is playing out between the largely Christian minority group and government militias.
Youth leader @thinzashunleiyi in a piece on the invisible war unfolding in Kachin #Myanmar: “We need to raise our voices and let those in power be reminded that we don’t want war. It is their duty to end it …” youth taking huge risks to do just that. https://t.co/ftQngef4GG
— Rin Fujimatsu (@rinfujimatsu) May 14, 2018