BAP, May 31

The blast that changed everything for resistance fighter Peto happened at 10:30am on August 24, 2021.

The explosion scattered Peto and three of his comrades like dried leaves in a strong wind.

“I just heard a deafening ‘boom!’ and I was thrown back. The next thing I knew, I was struggling to get up. It was only then that I realised that both my legs and my right hand were completely mangled,” Peto, 28, said of the incident that forever altered his life.

The blast had been from an improvised explosive device (IED) the group had been planting to target junta forces.

“At the time, we were planting the explosives in an area where the military was conducting offensive operations. The day before the accident, we  had been repositioning the IEDs because of the junta forces’ movements. We had already repositioned three, when the blast happened. It could have been a stray electrical signal that triggered the device because it was intended to be set off by remote control,” Peto says.

The explosion killed Peto’s squad leader, who was also his mentor, and other teammate. Another squad member was injured, while Peto was in critical condition.

“In the moments immediately after the blast, I only had one thought in my mind - to end my life. I was looking for my gun, but it must have been blown away in the explosion. I was fully focused on shooting myself after seeing my mangled limbs.”

 

“In the moments immediately after the blast, I only had one thought in my mind - to end my life. I was looking for my gun, but it must have been blown away in the explosion. I was fully focused on shooting myself after seeing my mangled limbs.”

However, fate had other plans for Peto.

“I did not want to live after I saw my injuries and the pain was indescribable. I asked one of the fighters who responded to the blast to kill me so I would no longer feel any pain,” Peto said.

However, his rescuer refused to do so and instead told Peto he could recover with medical treatment.

Today, nearly 10 months after the blast, Peto looks calm while recounting his story to Burma Associated Press.

While he survived, his journey to recovery has been far from easy. He was not treated in a proper hospital and spent his recovery in a makeshift medical facility staffed by volunteer medical personnel.

“After two or three days when the doctors wanted to operate on me because my legs were starting to become gangrenous, I couldn’t sign the permission documents. I had to use my left thumb print on the documents,” Peto recalls.

Physically active before the accident, Peto had also been sharing his knowledge of explosives with other members of his People’s Defence Force unit.

“When I regained consciousness after the operation, I began to realise that I could not do anything for myself and I was depressed. From being physically active to becoming a cripple nearly broke my spirit.”

But after more time recovering, he began to accept his new limitations and resolved to improve his situation.

“I am not the only one, there are other resistance fighters who have suffered similarly horrific injuries. I don’t think there is anything special about me, so I have decided to leave behind what happened. I will not carry it in my mind as a burden,” he says with resolve.

 

“I am not the only one, there are other resistance fighters who have suffered similarly horrific injuries. I don’t think there is anything special about me, so I have decided to leave behind what happened. I will not carry it in my mind as a burden,” he says with resolve.

“During my recuperation I began to focus on how I will improve my life. I hope to get prosthetic limbs and those will help my mobility. My current situation is just a phase and I will move on. My main focus is on ending the fighting in Myanmar as soon as possible. The main thing is to win, nothing else matters more,” he adds.

As a result of his injuries, Peto’s right leg was amputated at his thigh and his left leg from below his knee. His right arm now ends at the wrist.

His right hand and leg were taken off soon after the incident, while his left leg was removed six months later after failing to improve.

“I thought that my left leg could have been saved with proper treatment, but six months later, due to a lack of enough medication, my bones became infected so it had to be cut off to prevent the infection from spreading and killing me,” Peto says from the wheelchair he now uses.

He says he grew up as the eldest of three children in an ordinary family with no political leanings in Pyay, Bago Region.

And he would have continued living an ordinary life with an ordinary family if the coup hadn’t taken place, he adds.

“If our country could progress, the people wouldn’t have to live like this. We might even have been able to live well. I went to university but being educated was of no use when everything began deteriorating again after the coup. I have young nieces and nephews; I don’t want them to live to experience what I and older generations had to experience in the past. I want them to have the best, that is why I joined the resistance,” Peto says of his rationale to take up arms against the junta.

He says he got the name Peto during his university days.

“In school, I was always simple and carefree living on my own. Pe Pe Tay Tay as they say in Burmese. So my friends called me Peto.”

His face visibly brightens when he talks about his university days and he looks like he isn’t even thinking about the dilapidated wheelchair he is in.

Although Peto lived an ordinary life before February 1, 2021, he moved into the jungle without letting his family know soon after the military seized power. Not long after finishing his own basic training on military skills and explosives he was sharing his knowledge  with the increasing numbers of other young people who were joining the People’s Defence Forces (PDF).

“I want my country to be like other countries around the world. I do not want Myanmar to always be gazing enviously at other countries that have progressed so far even just in Southeast Asia. The good of the country was my only motivation for going into the jungle.”

 

“I want my country to be like other countries around the world. I do not want Myanmar to always be gazing enviously at other countries that have progressed so far even just in Southeast Asia. The good of the country was my only motivation for going into the jungle.”

Upon joining a PDF unit, he gained first-hand knowledge of the difficulties the resistance faced when it came to gaining access to funds, weapons, and ammunition.

“After the first groups of people began joining the resistance forces, we were told that we would be provided weapons, but nothing much came of it. The people who are fighting now have no ammunition. We are all surviving on what little of our own money we have left. Being part of a PDF unit is not easy if there is no support. It would not be possible for many without the support of family or friends,” Peto says of the difficulties the resistance forces have to deal with.

“There is no strong link between the top and bottom of the opposition and there is only a small amount of support for the PDF units. There is never enough money. What we need most now is weapons and ammunition because without that we are at severe handicap. To produce IEDs, we have to use our own money to obtain materials and that isn’t enough,” Peto says while slapping the stump of his right arm into his left hand in frustration over the difficulties the resistance faces.

Nine months after his mishap, his family learned of his injuries.

“My family found out about me after an acquaintance told them. I didn’t want them to know because I didn’t want to burden them. My plan was to tell them when I felt the time was right because they would have been worried if they found out earlier,” he says.

Even so, his injuries are not the only thing his family has to worry about.

One of his two younger brothers was arrested and imprisoned in Pyay on suspicion of supporting the opposition, and his wife whom he had recently married was arrested while on the way to Yangon. The family have been unable to obtain any further information about them.

In some ways, Peto himself has been fortunate. His girlfriend followed him into the jungle after he was injured and they have since gotten married.

Although the fate of his brother and his wife are a constant worry, he is trying to not let it overwhelm him.

“I have to push myself to focus on the resistance movement. I can’t worry about what might happen next because no one can tell the future,” Peto says.

With the loss of his right hand, he is now working on learning to do more with his left.

“I am learning to shoot a pistol with my left hand because I can no longer shoot a long gun, and I’m l also exercising to strengthen my left arm.”

Beyond overcoming the junta, Peto has a clear goal for his future. He says he would like to go home and then fulfil his dream of opening up an IT shop.

In the meantime, he is preparing for the worst while hoping for the best.

“I don’t think it will be easy. I have already paid a heavy price for resisting the oppressors. I do not know what will happen, so I do not think ahead. I focus on the present,” he says.

And among the things he is focusing on is ending the country’s turmoil as soon as possible.

“I want to finish the revolution as soon as possible. Most of us are depressed because everyone is separated from their families. If it continues like this, some will leave to other countries or return home,” said Peto, adding that he is looking forward to getting prosthetic legs so he can walk.

 

“I want to finish the revolution as soon as possible. Most of us are depressed because everyone is separated from their families. If it continues like this, some will leave to other countries or return home,” said Peto, adding that he is looking forward to getting prosthetic legs so he can walk.

“I want to keep working for the resistance after I can walk and if things haven’t improved for the country.

However, It depends on the people who are leading the resistance, he says with a level of clearheadedness for someone so young.

“The revolution could end more quickly, if we can gain access to more weapons,” he opines. “If it continues like this, our revolution is not over. The longer we take, the more people will suffer.  

“If things drag on, support will weaken as the economy crumbles and people are forced to use whatever money they have left to look after themselves. The military already has its own ammunition. If we want to stop the suffering fast, we have to arm everyone quickly,“ he points out.

Peto says he is disappointed because he was severely wounded so early in the fight against the junta. Before he joined the resistance he had prepared himself for the possibility that he could die or become crippled so he says despite the loss of his limbs he has no regrets about joining the resistance.

What he does have regrets about is meagreness of assistance for the PDFs from those higher up in the opposition.

“I have been in this situation for nine months and it has been enough time for me to recover, but nothing else has happened. The higher levels have not put forward any good plans,” he says.

“People who take the leading roles need to work harder. They should find more funds and weapons, he adds.

Nevertheless, Peto says he understands that the path the opposition has chosen is not an easy one.

He wants to warn those thinking of joining the resistance fighters.

“If you fight, you can be injured or killed and it can happen to anyone. If you are not prepared to face that then don’t join the resistance forces,” he says emphatically.

Even though he had wanted to kill himself immediately after he was injured, he is now on a familiar path after his recovery.

“There was a point when I wanted to quit, but now I am determined to keep going till the end. I am now working as much as I can. Even though I can’t contribute the same as before, I can still share knowledge about explosives and give suggestions about operations and planning.”

He says he now no longer worries about handling explosives.

“Nothing worse can happen to me because the worst has already happened. If it happens again then I will most likely be killed. Things will happen as they are meant to happen,” he says with clear determination.

So even though the explosion claimed three of his limbs, it was evidently not strong enough to snuff out the spirit of resistance that clearly continues to burn strong within his spirit.

Burma Associated Press