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THE STUDENT ARMY OF BURMA - PART 1

Photos and Text by Richelle Forsey



A few years ago I lived in one of the ABSDF’s seven military camps along the Thai/Indonesian/ Chinese border. The All Burma Students’ Democratic Front are a student army fighting for democracy in their home nation. They formed in November of 1988 after the nationwide 8888 (Aug. 8, 1988) democratic uprisings to end the one-party leadership of Burma that resulted in a bloody coup and the death of over 3,000 people across the country.

Click on images to enlarge
ABSDF soldiers take Morse-code class every day. The instructor taps out messages and the guys write them down. Sometimes soldiers will be at a post listening for months to the junta and will need to relay the info back to their superiors.


For food we boiled the papaya leaves and vines that grew wild around the camp. The rice was chicken grade, with small rocks and rodent shit in it. When I first got there I thought it was fucking gross, but after a month I just picked it out. We ate that almost every single day.


This is the ABSDF war office, where training operations and planning are carried out. The actual location of the camp is a secret. All I can tell you is that it was a bitch to get to. Have you ever climbed up a waterfall? I have.


How this sweet Iron Maiden shirt got to the jungles of Burma is beyond me.


TO BE CONTINUED:
THE STUDENT ARMY OF BURMA | 1 | 2 | 3 | Next>

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Comments

Anonymous, on Aug 12, 2008 wrote:
to all the people hating on this article. did you even know about this shit before you read it? well. probably not. so fuckin well done vice for printing some more stuff that we dont get exposed to everyday. as for the tone of the article. fuck it. its the story that matters.

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