Silent Cries: A Record of Struggle and Survival in Western Myanmar

In this upcoming book, published by the University of Hawaii Press, I provide a journalistic record of a deep humanitarian crisis as the region suffered (and still suffers) through the pandemic, armed conflict, military suppression, and civil war, covering the period from September 2020 to March 2023. This collection of 31 articles focuses on the history of resistance in the western Myanmar state of Rakhine and is newly written for the last chapter. I also seek to give expression to the experiences and fears of Rakhine people, to allow their voices to speak, and to highlight the dangerous confluence of armed conflict and the pandemic outbreak in one of Myanmar’s poorest states. The articles have all been previously published by internationally known outlets, and I have organized the content in the four “chapters” that focus on different aspects of the conflict between the military and the rebel Arakan Army – the pandemic, the coup, the failed truce, and the emergence of the Arakan Army as the major player in Rakhine state. For last chapter, which is newly written, focuses on comparative analysis of post-Cyclone scenarios between Mocha in May 2023 in western Myanmar, and Cyclone Nargis in May 2008 in Ayeyarwady Delta in southwest Myanmar, responded by different stakeholders including the junta regime, rebel administration, and international community. The extensive network I established as a journalist and political analyst in Myanmar has been maintained since I fled after the military coup, and through daily communication I have been able to maintain a high level of reporting on this conflict-ridden but little-known area of the world. My goal is to provide an enduring record of how human rights, freedom, and personal security have been fundamentally undermined in Myanmar, and how and why this has come about.