The peaceful protests were right but the military shot at us, in the head,in thebody…so,the anger exploded andpeoplewanted to fight back.Some people don’t believe in peaceful protest anymore.Because even if we stay peaceful, they will never stay peaceful …That’s why a lot of young people,teenage people,a lot ofmy friends,peoplewhose familyor friends died…choose the armed resistance. In a way, you already answered my question.A lot of young people are leaving the city to fight with rebel groups, also ethnic rebel groups or the People’s Defence Force. Is this a bigmovement? Yes, it is a big movement. In the past, the Burmese army attacked the Shan people, the Kachin people…Then the Shan and Kachin people fought back.But with the PDF, the Burmese people are attacking the Burmesearmy.TherearenowtwoBurmesearmies fightingeachother. Another song on the album is ‘Genocide’. I think this is about the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya minority in 2016-2017. You said already that muslims are still persecuted. How is the situation with themnow? When we wrote the ‘Genocide’ song in 2018, some people agreed that this was a genocide but other people disagreed.The government, the NLD (National League for Democracy, the party that was in power between 2015 and 2021, xk), the Tatmadaw … they don’t want to hear about agenocide.Theytell us that therewas nogenocide.That’swhywe made a song that was called ‘Genocide’, to stress that it was an actual genocide.We don’t use theword‘Rohingya’butwewanted to stress that a lot ofpeople in theRakhine statewere fleeing their houses and dying. Everybody knows that wemean the Rohingya people,right. Another song is‘Food Not Bombs’.We are aware of your Food Not Bombs project in which you distribute food to people in need in Yangon. I’ve understood from your facebook that you also have a Food Not Bombs programme directed to the Rohingya people. Is that correct? Yes. But we are not in the refugee camps in Bangladesh. Some Rohingya people are still in the Rakhine state (the part of Myanmar where the Rohingya live,xk).We are supporting the Rohingya people who stayed in the Rakhine state. Yes but you live in Yangon. The Rakhine state is far away. So, the FoodNot Bombs-projectmust be a big organisation… No, it is not a big organisation.We have a lot of influence on young people.Theylike Rebel Riot and it’s not onlyabout themusic.Theylike our way of thinking,our way of living,they like our ideas…some fans of Rebel Riot who live in Rakhine state wanted to start a Food Not Bombs chapter in their own state because if you want to support our band,you should not buythe CDormerchandising but you should just showit through your attitude.That’s howthe chapter in Rakhine state started.We don’t need to go there.We canmeet with a zoommeeting and share our ideas and brainstorm.We are not only active in Rakhine state.We have chapters in Dawei,Mandalay,Mon state,Bago… sometimes I go and joinbut normallyI live in the city.We arenowalso starting a new chapter in Kachin state. I don’t need to go. I just meet with people on internet and sharemy ideas. - 23 - Let’s go back to the start of Rebel Riot.You started the band after the Saffron Revolution in 2007. You already said that it was very different from now but the Saffron Revolution was also a big revolution against the military. What differences do you see between nowand then? Backthen,the buddhistmonkswere starting the revolution.We are a traditional buddhist country, so everybody thought: ‘they can arrest everybody but not the monks’. People didn’t expect the military to turn on the monks.Usually, the people are afraid of the military but now they thought that they were many and the monks supported them.They thought the military could not kill or arrest a monk.They have to respect the monks but they did not. They shot and killed many people.So,people were very scared.A lot of people died.That mademe think and I startedmakingmusic after that. Let’s go back to the music. I like the way you mix the Burmese languagewith English inyour songs.Whydoyou do that?You speak Burmese but you also fit in somewords in English inmanysongs. It’s our style since we created the band.As we write our music, the choruses aremainlyEnglishwhile the verses are in theBurmese language.We tried to translate it in Burmese but it didn’t workwell.Our English is not so difficult.We use a type of English that everybody understands.We also have international people who support us,and they like it. But I cannot write a full song in English. I’m very bad at singing in English but even if people don’t understand the whole song,theyunderstand the chorus.TheBurmese language ismoredifficult to translate andmore difficult to shout. I have just one final question.You’re in a strugglewith themilitary, there’s a civil war going on, there is still a civil disobedience movement going on … Do you think the people can win this struggle? Can the people defeat themilitary? I don’t knowwhat will happen.I’m not a politician.But I strongly believe that ifwe fight every day,we must win for sure.Also,we are already winning. People keep fighting and are believing in it.And the military, the Tatmadaw, are scared. Even if they have guns, they still fear us.So,we have alreadywon.We’re doing what we believe in every day.They are doing what they’re fearing every day.We have a lot of artists defying the military. I cannot predict the future but if we keep doingwhat we believe in,we will win one day. (Read more on wwww.peek-a-boo-magazine.be) Xavier KRUTH therebelriot.bandcamp.com / facebook.com/therebelriot www.peek-a-boo-magazine.be
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