The Brothers Who Came Face to Face in Myanmar’s War

Asia Pacific|Two Brothers Come Face to Face in a Ruinous Civil War

The soldier was hungry and strung out on meth. Rebel fighters were attacking his base, just as a military helicopter had dropped food and ammunition for his battalion. After one package landed outside the garrison walls, he was ordered to go retrieve it.

However, the rebels got there first and seized the soldier, Cpl. Thein Htay Aung of the Myanmar Army, and four others with him, along with rice, instant noodles, cigarettes and bullets.

Their hands tied, the prisoners were marched to the rebel camp. The corporal expected the worst. Instead, he was shocked to see his little brother standing among the rebels.

“I thought they were going to kill me right there on the road,” Thein, 38, said after his capture in February. “But when I saw my younger brother, I felt a huge sense of relief. I suddenly felt so happy, because I wasn’t going to die after all.”

In a video of the brothers taken that day, the corporal’s hands are still tied, and he appears dazed by his sudden change in circumstances. His brother, Ko Tike Moung, 30, a rebel fighter, drapes his arm over him and beams with joy. He does the talking.

“Meeting like this makes me happy but also sad,” he said. “Still, it’s fortunate that we’re both alive and we can talk to each other like this.”