NEWSLETTER


DOS & DON'TS

  • DOs & DON'Ts

    I bet more people would be cool with the paparazzi if they went for this guy's "upper-class Malaysian bug collector" vibe, rather than "pack of Brazilian rapists."
    Enlarge/Comments
    DOs & DON'Ts

  • DOs & DON'Ts

    Let’s face it cartoonists like Chris Ware are way better artists than any famous people lingering around Gavin Brown. Tattoos are permanent drawings so if you’re getting one you should use the best drawers around. If that isn’t a huge doye I don’t know what is.

    Enlarge/Comments
    DOs & DON'Ts





MORE FROM THIS ISSUE

LITTLE ENGLAND IN SRI LANKA
Photos by Martin Parr Words by Susie Parr
NEW WORK BY RYAN MCGINLEY
MY LITTLE DEAD DICK
My Little Dead Dick is the visual diary of two photograph...
CAROLIN LESZCZINSKI
This is from many years ago. I always photographed this boy beca...
THE GIRLS OF "SHOT BY KERN"
Photos by Richard Kern
JONATHAN BLACK
On February 3, 2006, two weeks after Laura and I got married at ...
ISABELLA ROZENDAAL
Friendship is very important to me. These photos are all of my g...
I GOT A MATCH: YOUR FACE AND MY ...
Butts are like snowflakes-no two are the same and they're fun to...



MORE FROM VICELAND



MORE FROM VBS



MORE FROM THE CREATORS PROJECT



MORE FROM MOTHERBOARD

THE STUDENT ARMY OF BURMA - PART 1

Photos and Text by Richelle Forsey

Published July, 2007


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>


See all articles by this contributor
< PREV

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.

POST A COMMENT [SIGN IN]
Hi, in case you haven't heard, you can now sign up to become a "member" of Viceland.com, which entitles you to all sorts of amazing benefits like pictures and a nickname. Click here to make your own profile. You can still comment if you don't, but you gotta do it all 'nonymously.

Name:
Comment: