The mobile game funding a revolution in Myanmar

[Social Media]

 

When soldiers in Myanmar arrested Ko Toot's friend and his pregnant wife after the February 2021 coup, he became so angry he decided to join efforts to remove the military from power - by using his IT skills.

The app-based mobile game that he developed is based on "real events" in the country and has proved a hit - incensing the ruling junta and raising funds for the anti-military resistance.

"They had never done a single criminal thing in their lives," said Ko Toot of the couple, who were detained for supporting the pro-democracy movement.

He didn't know what had happened to them. The BBC only recently established the woman was released within a day, but the man was held for about a year and a half.

After their arrest, Ko Toot then heard the military had detained the wife and infant daughter of a pro-democracy activist it had been unable to locate.

"Imagine you are a young child and you grow up inside a dirty, stressful and sadistic prison, and you have no idea what's going on. It made my blood boil."

 

So Ko Toot, who works as an IT professional, decided he had to be part of the movement to oust the "cruel and dangerous" military - and began working on his game.

Ko Toot spoke to the BBC by text message on an encrypted app, and would not reveal his location. We are using a pseudonym for his safety.

Myanmar descended into almost full-scale civil war after the coup.

More than 4,000 people have been killed by the military since then, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners monitoring group. The UN says the death toll is "likely to be far higher".

Gauging troop casualties is hard - the military has acknowledged losses but not given a figure. The exiled National Unity Government says the resistance has killed 20,000 soldiers, but the BBC has not verified this figure.

 

FULL STORY

[Tropicalevo]

And the world watches and does nothing.

Even ASEAN have bowed to pressure from Thailand - best friend to the illegal military government in Burma.

Singapore is also helping with the laundering of the drug money raised by the military there.