The Muslim motorcycle mechanic who downed tools to fight the junta

It was 2021, just some months after the February coup, however the army had already destroyed giant elements of Ko Bobo’s hometown, the Kayah State capital Loikaw.

Earlier than the coup, the 35-year-old led a humdrum life servicing bikes out of his streetside storage. He joined the mass demonstrations, however when troopers indiscriminately gunned down protesters, he shuttered his workshop and commenced making weapons out of spare vehicle elements.

After just a few months, in the dark, he completed producing a handgun able to taking .22 calibre cartridges. He was keen to check the gun in his little workshop and couldn’t look ahead to the morning.

“I used to be loopy sufficient to suppose if it labored, that the following morning I’d be on the market capturing these guys,” Ko Bobo instructed Frontier throughout a prolonged telephone interview. 

When he pulled the set off, a deafening bang reverberated all through his quiet neighbourhood. Though he was happy the firearm labored, Ko Bobo knew instantly he had made a mistake. His spouse rushed down from their upstairs residence to verify on him, and there after which they determined to take their two sleeping youngsters and run.

The household unexpectedly grabbed necessities for his or her escape into the unknown. However earlier than leaving, Ko Bobo held his treasured copy of the Qur’an, confronted the route of his mosque and fell to his knees in prayer. He referred to as out to Allah to guard him and his household for the perilous journey forward.

The choice to flee was the precise one. The next day, troopers who had been alerted by the explosion searched his household’s residence and seized the property.

For the crescent and the cross

Ko Bobo was born right into a tiny Muslim minority in Kayah, often known as Karenni State, Myanmar’s smallest state or area by space and inhabitants, the place the overwhelming majority are Christian or Buddhist. A 2018 survey by the Normal Administration Division counted simply 2,146 Muslims out of some 400,000 individuals within the state, though official information on ethnicity is notoriously unreliable in Myanmar. This small spiritual group is served by simply two mosques, each in Loikaw.

After fleeing his residence, Ko Bobo attended army coaching with the Kayan New Land Social gathering, an armed group representing the largely Christian Kayan minority that occupies mountains bordering Kayah, Kayin and southern Shan states. The KNLP launched a riot in 1964 however has noticed a ceasefire with the Tatmadaw for nearly 30 years, and was given management of Kayah State Particular Area 3 in change for remodeling to a military-aligned militia.

Regardless of this, within the early days after the coup, the KNLP surreptitiously offered coaching to new resistance teams, and has generally additionally mediated between resistance teams and the army. 

After his coaching, Ko Bobo travelled to Kayah’s Demoso Township, the place combating has been notably fierce. He helped set up a brand new resistance group in October 2021, the Justice Folks’s Defence Drive, and was instantly plunged into battle.

“We aren’t in any respect excited about doing administrative work – I don’t need to management anyplace. We hate the army that has bullied us for years, so after we fashioned, our solely objective was to assault. We signify justice for all individuals – so we named our group the Justice PDF,” he stated. 

Initially, JPDF relied solely on home made weapons and struggled to seek out donations. In February final yr, 4 of its fighters had been killed in a conflict with Tatmadaw troops who had been marching from Moebye city in southern Shan State to Demoso.

The following month, the JPDF participated in its fiercest struggle thus far – the battle of Demoso’s Kyauksekkan village. The operation was carried out in partnership with the Karenni Democratic Entrance and the Demoso PDF. The latter is beneath the command of the Nationwide Unity Authorities, a parallel administration appointed by elected lawmakers deposed within the coup, though Ko Bobo’s JPDF stays unbiased. The KDF later claimed that greater than 30 Tatmadaw troopers had been killed within the battle, a quantity that Frontier was unable to independently confirm.

Ko Bobo claimed he personally killed three troopers wielding an upgraded model of his home made .22 calibre handgun.

Due to his bravery, management and tactical acumen – proven once more in a later battle in Kyauk Dam village – Ko Bobo was unanimously elected commander of the JPDF. He instructed Frontier he was made commander additionally due to his honesty and compassion, and that the position had pushed him to turn out to be extra mature. As commander, he targeted on bettering the group’s weaponry and constructing alliances with different armed resistance teams.

In April final yr JPDF merged with the KDF and different allied teams, together with Karenni Technology Z, GZ-21 Loikaw, Southern Shan PDF and the Medic Unit, to kind the extra formidable Karenni Revolution Union. Ko Bobo stays in control of his JPDF troops as a column commander within the KRU.

The KRU later allied with the Karenni Nationalities Defence Drive – Kayah’s largest armed group, which capabilities as an umbrella group beneath the Karenni Military’s management – however stays unbiased from it.

The desecration of Kayah State

Ko Bobo’s followers say regardless of his completely different religion, he shares their ache when Christians or Buddhists endure beneath the army.

“Bobo is somebody who respects Christian church buildings and does as a lot as doable to guard them. He would by no means assault troops or deploy fighters close to church buildings,” stated Khun Lay, a Christian JPDF fighter. “When junta forces destroy church buildings and [Buddhist] monasteries in Karenni land, we’re heartbroken, and Ko Bobo all the time feels the identical method.”

The army has frequently focused Christian websites in Kayah and elsewhere for the reason that coup. The bulk Christian Chin State has been probably the most affected, however in Kayah, the Tatmadaw has destroyed a minimum of 30 spiritual buildings, each Christian and Buddhist, based on the resistance-affiliated Progressive Karenni Folks Forces data centre. Of those, greater than 20 buildings had been destroyed final yr alone. 

Like in lots of different elements of Myanmar even earlier than the coup, church buildings and Buddhist monasteries have offered shelter to displaced civilians and people fleeing army raids. Such websites are protected beneath worldwide humanitarian legislation, however this doesn’t appear to discourage the Tatmadaw. When battle first broke out in Kayah after the coup, church buildings would fly white flags to point the presence of sheltering civilians, however the army allegedly attacked them anyway.

“It can’t be an accident when mortars are fired at a church,” stated a Roman Catholic priest who requested to stay nameless. “We used to fly a white flag and a Christian flag, however it wouldn’t cease the junta’s troops, so we will say they’re deliberately attacking the church buildings.”

The priest stated that because of the depth of the combating, many church buildings closed their doorways, unable to accommodate the numbers searching for refuge, whereas the clergy fled to safer areas like Loikaw.

The Karennni Human Rights Group final yr estimated that over half of the state had been displaced by combating for the reason that coup, with some fleeing to neighbouring Thailand and elements of southern Shan State.

Demoso, the place Ko Bobo operates, is not any exception, with resistance forces estimating solely 10 p.c of the pre-coup inhabitants stays of their houses. With a proud Catholic and Baptist Christian custom, nearly all of Demoso’s giant spiritual websites have been desecrated by the army, with many mendacity in ruins. These embody the 6 Mile Temple, St. Joseph Catholic Church, Queen of Peace Church and Demoso Baptist Church.

Ko Bobo stated a few of this destruction is a results of the army occupying these websites.

“After all they [the military] may struggle with out damaging the temples. However the warfare canines intentionally camp at and goal spiritual buildings. As revolutionary teams who honour these sanctuaries, we retreat, however this makes it tougher to struggle them,” stated Ko Bobo. “We may select to burn these buildings upfront or booby entice them with explosives. However, in fact, we by no means will… we do every part in our energy to guard spiritual buildings.”

Ko Bobo recalled one incident through the battle for Moebye city in southern Shan, when one in every of his troops was shot and killed close to a church the place Tatmadaw troops had been stationed. He stated they couldn’t retrieve the physique for concern that additional combating would harm the constructing.

“I really feel excessive anger after I see church buildings being destroyed. When Christian worshippers lose their church buildings, I really feel the ache of dropping a mosque. If there are not any extra temples, no spiritual teams can honour their gods,” Ko Bobo instructed Frontier.

Ko Bobo says this sympathy was developed due to his personal expertise of non secular persecution. As a younger Muslim rising up in Myanmar within the late Nineteen Nineties, he noticed his spiritual group denied the rights afforded to others. 

Ko Bobo, whose father is a Bamar Muslim and mom Karenni Muslim, stated he and his mother and father had been by no means in a position to purchase nationwide IDs generally known as Citizenship Scrutiny Playing cards, which means he was disadvantaged of the fundamental rights afforded to Myanmar residents.

“It’s terribly arduous to be a Muslim in Myanmar. I didn’t obtain issues taken with no consideration by others,” he stated. “Muslims don’t even get the chance to check – even when they’re sharp – and are refused jobs even when they’re gifted… Even when I wished to save cash and purchase land, I’d not be allowed due to my faith.”

He instructed Frontier that the Spring Revolution should finish all types of repression, together with by scrapping the 1982 Citizenship Legislation, which many say is utilized in an arbitrary and discriminatory strategy to oppress Muslims and different minority teams.

“I need to encourage all my Muslims brothers to grasp that justice shouldn’t be one thing that’s gifted mechanically, however a proper we should struggle for,” he stated.

Many Muslims have joined resistance teams or allied ethnic armed teams, with some even forming their very own militia in October final yr, referred to as the Folks Liberation Muslim Entrance. The group introduced that it could struggle with different armed teams towards the regime, however particulars of its operations stay scarce.

The PLMF’s chief instructed Frontier that, as Muslims, his fighters and their communities have been oppressed for years, making it troublesome for them to kind an armed group that’s broadly accepted by the general public. He stated that Muslim fighters had been coaching in territory claimed by ethnic armed teams, as a result of they haven’t any area to name their very own.

Tun Kyi, data officer for the Spring Revolution Myanmar Muslim Community, a bunch fashioned by Muslim activists and former political prisoners, stated he believes the views of Myanmar’s Bamar Buddhist majority have modified drastically for the reason that coup, however that this variation hasn’t gone far sufficient.

“Muslim heroes have participated in each battle in Myanmar throughout the ages. They gave their lives and fought fiercely for his or her nation. So why should we nonetheless expertise this Islamophobia?” requested Tun Kyi, who’s himself a former political prisoner.

He criticised the NUG for failing to nominate any Muslim representatives; the human rights ministry features a Rohingya Muslim “advisor”, however no Muslims occupy a minister or deputy minister place.

NUG officers had promised a gathering with Muslim activists to debate plans to repeal the discriminatory 1982 Citizenship Legislation amongst different issues, however Tun Kyi says he’s dissatisfied that no additional assertion on the matter has been made.

“That is an unjust legislation; we name it the Nazi legislation. Due to this legislation, we Muslims don’t have the rights of free residents. [NUG] officers should match their beliefs with deeds, somewhat than persevering with to pacify the Muslim individuals with empty phrases,” he stated.

Tun Kyi stated he was pleased with all Muslims taking part within the armed wrestle towards the army, and that he particularly admires Ko Bobo for safeguarding Kayah church buildings.

In October final yr, the JPDF celebrated its one-year anniversary with a parade in Demoso Township. On the entrance stood a person with a thick black beard, wielding an uncommon gun made in a small motorbike storage in Loikaw.