Episode 14: Why I turned from journalism to Freedom Fighter

Show notes

For Mary Wine to be kicked out of bed at 05:30am was definitely out of sync. But over night the world as she had known it for m most of her life had been overturned. Nothing did the young Burmese journalist know about the Coup d'Etat the military had staged at dawn of this February 1, 2021. "With tears in my eyes I called my colleagues to join me in the office", she remembered talking to "Voices for Freedom". It took Mary and her little crew only hours to realize that the military's move was meant to be the end of the country's slow path to democracy.

Since the early days of the coup the military went after politicians, journalists and intellectuals in general.The soldiers fired life rounds into the crowds killing a stream of protesting citizens. Insein prison, Myanmar's most dreaded jail, was filling up at warp speed. Its torture chambers were and are busy 24/7. Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the legitimate government was taken from her home to an unknown destination. Confronted with a myriad of false air trumped up charges, the Nobel Peace Prize winner could be sentenced to 150 years of imprisonment. "I had many good reasons to go underground immediately and to make my way across the border to neighboring country", Mary recalls. Even though she doesn't give too many details about her journey into exile, she is remarkably open about her new affiliation with the Burmese resistance movement: "The anger and frustration of my People is growing by the day.Armed groups of Freedom Fighters are confronting the army all over the country. We have understood that the time for change has come."

Today, Mary Wine has found temporary shelter at the Hamburg Foundation for politically persecuted People. "Here I feel safe", she tells "Voices for Freedom" in this Podcast.Besides her continuing work for the Burmese opposition the former journalist will try to build a network of German and European supporters of the Burmese opposition: "Maybe it's not for today or tomorrow, but in the long run military rule over the Burmese people is doomed to fail."