In Phnom Penh (Cambodia)
This is the story of an evening that went particularly wrong.
In January 2023, Zin Myat Shine dozed off in the middle of the night, heavily tipsy, at the Hlain Thar Yar bus station, on the western outskirts of Yangon.
He had to take a bus in the early morning for his home province of Ayeyarwady.
But when he woke up, perimeter walls raised with barbed wire and personnel in military uniforms replaced the dingy surroundings of the bus station.
In his heavy sleep, the 19-year-old man was kidnapped by the Burmese army.
“
It was an absolute blur.
A camp officer told me that I had been brought here for my safety and that I was free to leave.
But the soldiers on the base made me understand that if I walked through the gate, they would not hesitate to shoot me.
So, I stayed
,” explains the young man by telephone from Thailand, where he found refuge after deserting.
Also read: China imposes a fragile truce in Burma
For this former private security agent, the kidnapping from the bus station marks…
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