Hein Thar

Jul 2, 2024 | frontiermyanmar.net | Hein Thar

By HEIN THAR | FRONTIERKo Tin was so exhausted from staying up late to fill out paperwork that he slept through the sound of explosions that roused the rest of the town. When he went out for his morning walk, he noticed people gathering at a pagoda on a hilltop, from where they were watching a plume of smoke rising about two miles away. “Some village was burned down this morning,” someone in the crowd explained to him when he reached the top.

May 28, 2024 | frontiermyanmar.net | Hein Thar

OPINIONBy HEIN THAR | FRONTIERAs I sat on a bus from Washington, DC to Boston, gazing out the window at the unfamiliar landscape, I couldn’t shake off the chill of the April day. While my head was covered by a funny, cheap earmuff I just bought at a CVS, my gloveless fingers were numb from the cold. In Myanmar, April is synonymous with a scorching heat that can make people sick and drive dogs crazy.

May 10, 2024 | frontiermyanmar.net | Hein Thar

By HEIN THAR | FRONTIERWhile the situation on the battlefield remains in flux, there are already clear winners and losers in Myanmar’s media war. The military regime has completely lost control of the narrative, ceding ground to ethnic armed groups and post-coup resistance forces to define the situation in the country. The military’s hostility to journalists is infamous; it has arrested, tortured and killed reporters since the coup.

Mar 27, 2024 | frontiermyanmar.net | Hein Thar

By HEIN THAR | FRONTIERTheir parents picked beautiful names. The two sisters, Nobel Aye and Nightingale, were named after Alfred Nobel and Florence Nightingale, both pioneers of their fields. But General Ne Win’s regime was not one to reward creativity. When they first enrolled in public schools, they were told to change their unusual names, which sounded Christian and foreign.

Mar 1, 2024 | frontiermyanmar.net | Hein Thar

By HEIN THAR | FRONTIERDuring my six months in northern Shan State in 2021, whenever I got the chance to chat with a young soldier in the Ta’ang National Liberation Army, I always asked them a slightly personal question. “Are you an a-nyi?” I’d query, using the Ta’ang term for “second son”. More often than not, they’d look at me a bit surprised and reply: “How did you know?” while I hid a smile. Around two-thirds of the more than two dozen fighters I spoke to were second sons.