(The Myanmar Times) – Forced into the military at the age of 16, he ran away in 2005, after almost five years of service. While it marked the end of his time in the military, his ordeal continued. He never knew who he could trust: anyone, even a relative, could be an informant, willing to tip off the military as to his whereabouts. What he knew was that if he was caught, he would spend at least a year or two in prison before being forced back into the army. “I had to keep quiet even when drunks were provoking me because I couldn’t risk getting into a fight and being reported. I felt like a criminal,” Ko Naing Naing Oo, now 31, told The Myanmar Times at his home in Sinyar Myin Mu village in Amarapura township, Mandalay Region.
