Government forces have intensified their attempts to recapture territory held by the resistance ahead of the elections, so they can claim control over a larger share of the population. The resistance, by contrast, is fighting to hold these areas to protect civilians and preserve their way of life.
Inside Karenni State, the KNDF resistance military has supported the creation of a civilian government, which now operates schools, clinics, a police force, and other social services. Although poorly funded, this administration is working to organize displaced people into a functioning society.
The state capital, Loikaw, is held by the junta, while the largest city, Demoso, is split between the resistance and the junta’s army. In recent weeks, Demoso has seen daily artillery and mortar fire, while fighting has intensified in the neighboring Pekon region of southern Shan State, a Karenni-majority area, and in Pasaung, one of the largest cities in Karenni State.
The resistance has recaptured half of Pasaung, and soldiers now wait on the front line, impatient for the order to retake the rest of the city. Traveling from Demoso to Pasaung with the KDNF, we couldn’t use many of the paved roads because some were controlled by government forces. Instead, we had to make wide loops through jungle trails and along the river to avoid the fighting.
Two boats, lashed together with a bamboo platform across them, carried our truck across the river. I told one of the soldiers I had never seen a car ferried like that, and he showed me a video of another river crossing they had done, using pontoons made from empty oil drums tied into a bamboo frame to float a truck across.
We were crossing at night as rain began to fall. Over the constant sound of mortars and artillery, we could now hear thunder, and sometimes it was hard to tell the two apart. The lightning was particularly unnerving because I could never be sure if the flashes were muzzle flashes or if we were about to be electrocuted out on the water.
The next morning, we headed to the front in Pasaung. If the resistance could seize the rest of the city, it would open a paved road linking the interior of Karenni State with neighboring Thailand. This route would make transporting goods far easier, boost the food supply, and help bring down inflation.
Since the war began after the 2021 coup, agricultural output has plummeted. Most of the state’s population has been displaced, losing their fields, and even in resistance-held areas farming has been hampered by the loss of young men, either to the war or to Thailand, where many work as laborers to support their families back in Burma.
Trade between Karenni State and the rest of Burma has been severely reduced by the fighting, leaving farmers dependent on fertilizer and animal feed from Thailand. Both have become prohibitively expensive due to the difficulty of hauling them through the jungle.
The junta’s base in Pasaung had once been like a small city, but now it lies in ruins. We stayed carefully on the main path, knowing the areas to either side had been heavily mined.
We passed a destroyed house where junta officers had once kept their families. The resistance soldiers were appalled that, during the battle, instead of evacuating their loved ones, the junta commanders had called in airstrikes directly in front of their own family’s home in an attempt to kill resistance fighters.
This act, along with videos posted on social media by junta soldiers showing resistance members and civilians being burned alive, and others parading severed heads, gives a chilling picture of who the enemy is. “They are pure evil,” one soldier said.
A KNDF soldier, knowing I am friends with the Free Burma Rangers (FBR), pointed to a bomb crater and said, “This is where Oo Reh died.” Oo Reh was a hero who lost his life while evacuating the wounded from this battle. Over just a few days, the Rangers transported and treated around 160 casualties.
Oo Reh was killed when shrapnel struck the ambulance he was driving. Tragically, as many, or nearly as many, Rangers have been killed since the coup as in the previous twenty years of combat.
Just before leaving Demoso, I had met with the FBR Karenni team. They mourned the loss of their fellow Karenni Rangers, but the team leader said he was confident that the Karenni people would retake their state.
While we were at the front, things were quiet. The resistance soldiers were chomping at the bit, waiting for their leaders to give the green light to retake the city. The government forces likely knew this and were preparing to repel them. The difference is that this war is taking place in an ethnic state, where local fighters in the resistance are determined to reclaim land where their families lived just four years ago.
The government troops, by contrast, are from far away and have no connection to the land or its people. This detachment makes it easier for them to commit atrocities, but it also means they cannot be as motivated as the resistance, whose only goal is to win back their homes.
The KNDF soldiers showed me a box of documents they had recovered from a junta army residence. Among them were detailed records of junta soldiers attending Russian language courses, part of a new program aimed at strengthening ties between Russia and the junta. The box also contained documents outlining stock transfers, suggesting that some junta soldiers, possibly only officers, were being paid in shares from state-owned companies.
We went back to where I was staying. The next morning, while I was having breakfast, a soldier from the KNPLF, one of the other Karenni resistance forces, came to me and asked, “Do you have an M-4?” I told him, “No, I only have cameras.” Then he asked, “Do you have bullets?” Again, I had to disappoint him. “Nope, just cameras.”
He showed me his pistol, a Czech-made 9mm. “This is all I have,” he said, mentioning the upcoming battle, “and only 30 rounds of ammunition.” I just shook my head, thinking how much I would hate being in that situation.
Thousands of civilians have been displaced, unable to return home until the fighting ends and the Karenni drive out the junta troops. After years of shifting battle lines and repeated displacements, many civilians have grown accustomed to the war.
One man told me, “Sometimes villages around that area, they just come closely watching the fighting like a football match.” He laughed. “Many of my nephews call me and say, ‘We are watching the fighting now. You bring snacks.’”
For now, civilians, soldiers, and one American journalist are waiting for the battle to begin.
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