Irrawaddy-May 26
It has been more than a year since Ko Jack (not his real name) left behind the career he loved and joined the armed struggle to defend the people from the junta’s atrocities.For about 10 years, he followed his passion for photography, working as a photojournalist for news organizations in Yangon. As he had a special interest in covering armed conflicts, Ko Jack traveled to several ethnic states where armed groups have long fought the military for greater rights and autonomy, telling their stories through his camera lens. Today, he finds himself among them not as a journalist, but fighting back against the military that overthrew the elected civilian government led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in a coup in February last year. Now a member of the People’s Defense Force in Karen State, the 29-year-old has taken part in five heavy battles alongside ethnic Karen forces fighting junta troops. In those clashes, more than 100 junta forces were killed and around a dozen captured. For more than a month after the coup, Ko Jack put aside his personal anger at the military takeover in order to focus on his job, heading to the streets with his camera to document the anti-coup protests and the junta’s crackdown on its opponents. With his fellow journalists, he kept the world informed of the events that were unfolding in the coup-hit country and presented evidence of the violence used by the junta’s forces.However, one day in March, witnessing the aftermath of a bloodbath committed by the junta in a suburb of Yangon convinced him that he had to take up arms. Read more at: https://www.irrawaddy.com/in-person/profile/myanmar-journalist-turned-resistance-fighter-swapped-his-camera-for-a-gun.html
